314 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



social unrest of Geneva at that date, and the political purpose 

 that was underlying de Saussure's action. He writes : 



' If there is a State that more than others needs to attend to educa- 

 tion, it is that in which the opinions and the way of living of a con- 

 siderable portion of its members are opposed to the spirit of its Govern- 

 ment. Such an opposition must always produce discontents, public 

 and private quarrels, general distrust, difficulties and shocks dangerous 

 to the State ; and it is to education alone that we can look for the removal 

 of these abuses. In a Republic such as ours, therefore, an education 

 is called for which will inspire in the young of all classes the love of 

 country, the sense of common interests, and that spirit of equality 

 which the character of our Government implies and demands.' 



He goes on to insist on the advantages a public school has in 

 this and other respects over home education. The College, he 

 admits, was originally founded as a seminary for ecclesiastics and 

 civil servants ; but the time has come, he urges, when it should be 

 converted to more general uses. He points out unsparingly the 

 defects of a system that had driven from the College all the 

 children whose parents could afford to give them a better education. 

 The middle -class pupils, he declares, 



' get nothing but some notions, and those imperfect, of religion ; the 

 etymology of a few words derived from Greek or Latin, and some 

 scattered scraps of history and mythology ; those of the upper class, for 

 whom the curriculum was planned, bring nothing away but some bad 

 Latin and the rudiments of Greek. For all other branches of knowledge 

 they have, on leaving the College, to take them up at their A B C as 

 if they had never heard them mentioned.' 



De Saussure proceeds to set out in detail his scheme of in- 

 struction. It is interesting to note that he cites as a model for 

 imitation Zurich, celebrated at the present day for having some 

 of the best-provided primary schools, attended by all classes, in 

 Europe. The daily school-hours were not to exceed six ; of 

 these two were to be given to the dead languages, and two to 

 Science and History, two to Moral Instruction (under which 

 were included Christian doctrine and French poetry !). De 

 Saussure subsequently cut down Morals to one hour. To suit 

 parents who did not want classics, the hours for Latin and Greek 

 were to be so arranged that the pupils could easily absent them- 

 selves. For the rest, we find many sensible and essentially modern 



