EDUCATION. 



The three sciences mentioned are among the most 

 difficult of the sciences, and require strong mental 

 powers. And it is impossible to form a true 

 estimate of the laws and institutions of a country 

 without knowing its history, and without having 

 studied the history and institutions of the other 

 principal nations of the earth. The instruction of 

 the child and the youth must therefore be a pre- 

 paration for these higher studies, and these higher 

 studies should invariably end and complete the 

 work of instruction. 



What, then, is the preparation which can be 

 made for these higher studies ? 



For the study of human physiology and the laws 

 of health, the study of nature, as already described, 

 is the best preparation. The mode of procedure is 

 the same in both. 



For the other subjects a foundation must be 

 laid in a wide knowledge of concrete human nature. 

 Human nature must be known first in its simplest 

 forms ; and gradually the lessons must include 

 the most complex institutions in which human 

 nature exhibits itself. Now it is possible that 

 all these lessons, gradually rising in difficulty, 

 could be given in one language. Certainly there 

 is no introductory book equal to Robinson Crusoe; 

 for Defoe has in a masterly realistic manner de- 

 scribed the efforts of man to form a civilised life 

 for himself in the midst of the most simple circum- 

 stances. It is for this reason that Robinson Crusoe 

 has become a text-book in so many European 

 nations. At the same time, it has to be remem- 

 bered, that the work is a fiction, and however 

 cleverly Defoe has been able to divest himself of 

 the notions of his age, he still expresses in his writ- 

 ing, in spite of himself, the feelings and thoughts 

 of a man of his time that is, of an advanced 

 period of civilisation. The plan proposed to 

 meet the difficulties of the case is, to occupy 

 the pupil at the different stages of his career 

 with the literatures of the different periods 

 of history. This assumes that civilisation has 

 been developed, that at first we find man in 

 an exceedingly simple state, with simple 

 institutions ; but in the progress of time, man's 

 thoughts, actions, associations, and institutions 

 become more complex. And certainly, though 

 it would be rash to assert that civilisation has 

 gone on in anything like a straight line, there can 

 be no doubt that there has been progress. The 

 thinking, the manners, the institutions of the 

 Homeric period are much less complex than 

 those of the age of Pericles, when states had long 

 existed, political difficulties had been encountered, 

 and various forms of government had been tried. 

 Still more complex is the system of Roman 

 government, extending as it did over a very large 

 portion of the earth, and demanding practical 

 faculties and powers of combination, which Greek 

 statesmanship did not exhibit, and could not 

 reach. Still more complicated were the states 

 which arose out of the destruction of the Roman 

 empire ; and when we come to modern times, the 

 complexity becomes enormous, and the difficulty 

 of understanding what measures are beneficial for 

 nations is proportionally greater. Accordingly, the 

 ideal plan proposed for the thorough education of 

 a man of the nineteenth century, in whose case 

 the time and other cost could be afforded (see 

 p. 574), would be something like this : Up to ten 

 or eleven he derives his experience of humanity 



from the family circle, and the few companions 

 that are around him. At eleven, he begins the 

 study of Homer. Homer has almost no abstract 

 ideas. He has almost no reflection. He sees 

 with singularly clear eye. He sees accurately. 

 He has an interest in all external objects. He 

 rejoices in the play of the higher senses. And he 

 has given the most perfect expression to all that 

 he has seen and heard. At the same time, he 

 possesses a rich imagination, and abounds in 

 those rare legends which have delighted all 

 generations of men. From Homer, the boy 

 passes to the study of Herodotus, with whom 

 history commences. He is brought into contact 

 with more of the realities of life, but still in a 

 simple manner. The mere delight in a story 

 itself, whether it is true or false, has begun to 

 pass away, and the boy wishes to have facts ; 

 and Herodotus has exactly the same feeling. 

 From Herodotus, the boy may pass to the 

 Memorabilia of Xenophon, the tragedians, and 

 then to Plato. There are some parts of the 

 philosophy of Plato which he may find it difficult 

 to follow ; but the difficulty almost never arises 

 from the nature of the ideas in themselves, but 

 from some circumstances connected with them. 

 From Greek literature he passes to Latin liter- 

 ature ; and he finds in the historians and the 

 orators an introduction to a wider political sphere. 

 The practical life of the Romans attracts his 

 attention and fills his mind ; and he can find the 

 philosophical maxims on which this practical 

 life is based, exhibited in the perfection of style 

 in the philosophical works of Cicero. From 

 Cicero he would naturally pass to the Middle 

 Ages ; but from this most educationists, both spec- 

 ulative and practical, have shrunk. In the case 

 of the Greek and Latin writers, we have minds of 

 the highest order expressing in the most graceful 

 and perspicuous language the best and wisest 

 thoughts of their age. But when we come to the 

 Middle Ages, we cannot select writers who are 

 remarkable for their elegance of style. We can- 

 not affirm that certain men are men who have 

 given us humanity clearly reflected in their writ- 

 ings. In addition to this, there is the circum- 

 stance that the writers of the Middle Ages ex- 

 hibit and give expression to a mode of religious 

 life and thought which may be thought capable 

 of perverting the minds of those who study them, 

 whereas no one is afraid of children becoming 

 converts to the Greek or Roman religions. After 

 passing from the Middle Ages, the young man 

 then devotes himself to the history of his own 

 country and its literature. But in order to get a 

 clear view of the position of his own country, he 

 studies the history and literature of two or three of 

 the foremost continental nations. 



Of course, all this study implies the mastery of 

 foreign languages. But this is a positive advan- 

 tage for the real culture of the mind. For in the 

 first place, the languages of the writers help the 

 student to enter into their exact mode of thought 

 And secondly, each nation puts different groups of 

 things under single names that is, forms different 

 notions ; and in the effort to know exactly what 

 the writer in a different language means, it is 

 necessary to compare the notion formed by the 

 different people with the notion formed by one's 

 own people. This renders both notions much 

 clearer. And it especially makes clearer one's 



571 



