OF SOCIETY. 



455 



The most important contribution which the physio- 28. 



r Adam 



crats made towards social philosophy was, however, smith, 

 their influence upon economic theory in this country 

 as manifested conspicuously in the writings of Adam 

 Smith. It marks one of several instances in which 

 French thought transplanted upon foreign soil has 



I'Education,' 1851, vol. i. p. 180.) 

 And yet it is to French literature 

 that we are especially indebted for 

 marking the difference which exists 

 between education and instruction. 

 This subject was treated on two 

 memorable occasions, at the time 

 of the first Revolution and again 

 when France had run through its 

 course of three Revolutions, by two 

 men of great ability, representing 

 quite opposite directions of thought : 

 the first was Condorcet, the other 

 Mgr. DujjaiilQiipJBishop of Orleans. 

 The first heralds the going out of 

 the word education, the latter its 

 restitution in French educational 

 literature. Larousse says, in 1870, 

 ' : Malheureusement plus on avance, 

 plus on semble vouloir identifier 

 1'^ducation avec 1'instruction." 

 (See for further details a Paper on 

 " Education and Instruction in 

 England and Abroad," by J. T. 

 Merz : ' Proceedings of the Uni- 

 versity of Durham Philosophical 

 Society,' vol. i.) This phenomenon 

 may be connected with the circum- 

 stance mentioned by Lord Morley 

 in his interesting studies on the 

 leaders of French Thought during 

 the Eighteenth Century (see not- 

 ably his articles on Turgot and 

 Condorcet in the second volume of 

 his ' Miscellanies '). He there points 

 out that both Turgot and Condorcet. 

 in their otherwise memorable and 

 advanced conception of the phil- 

 osophy of History, laid exclusive 

 stress on the intellectual factor, 

 leaving out of consideration the 

 evolution of moral forces. After 



showing that both thinkers advance 

 beyond the static views of Vico and 

 Montesquieu according to which 

 history presents a cycle and human 

 affairs move in a constant and 

 self - repeating orbit, introducing 

 instead a dynamical theory of un- 

 limited progress, he says of Turgot 

 that his "conception of progress 

 regards it mainly, if not entirely, 

 as a gradual dawn and diffusion of 

 light, the spreading abroad of the 

 rays of knowledge. He does not 

 assert, as some moderns have 

 crudely asserted, that morality is 

 of the nature of a fixed quantity ; 

 still he hints at something of the 

 kind. . . . And because he could 

 not perceive there to be any new 

 growths in moral science, he left 

 out from a front place among the 

 forces that have given strength and 

 ripeness to the human mind, the 

 superior capacity of some men for 

 kindling by word and example the 

 glowing love and devout practice of 

 morality in the breasts of many 

 generations of their fellows." 

 ('Miscellanies,' ii. p. 106, 107.) 

 And of Condorcet he says : " The 

 freedom of the reason was so dear 

 to him that he counted it an 

 abuse for a parent to instil his own 

 convictions into the defenceless 

 minds of his young children. This 

 was the natural outcome of Con- 

 dorcet's mode of viewing history as 

 the record of intellectual emancipa- 

 tion, while to Comte its deepest 

 interest was as a record of moral 

 and emotional cultivation." (Ibid., 

 p. 554.) 



