OF EDUCATION 29 



ing in the ninth century. Both were annually rein- 

 forced and enlivened by the exodus of a thousand 

 young men from the Arabian schools. Both impulses 

 were taking deeper and deeper root in the nations of 

 Europe six hundred years before they culminated in 

 establishing the principles of modern European life. 

 Thus the spirit of improvement which had its be- 

 ginning in the schools of Spain in the darkest part of 

 the dark ages was the cause of the common school 

 and not the consequence of it, as many have supposed. 



The common school had its beginning in southern 

 Europe in the sixteenth century, and in the northerly 

 parts a hundred years later. What learning there was 

 at that time, except that derived from the Arabian 

 schools, was confined to bishops, monks and other 

 ecclesiastics. Men who knew the methods of true 

 education could have no voice or influence in organ- 

 izing the school, or formulating its methods. The 

 schools at first were reading schools and nothing 

 more. The priest of the parish was the teacher 

 because nobody else could read. But when a genera- 

 tion of readers had grown up, any one who could 

 do the necessary flogging could teach school. 



The expectations of the reading schools have never 

 been realized. At the end of the sixteenth century 

 there was disappointment everywhere. In the next 

 century arithmetic and writing were introduced, but 

 at the close of the century the disappointment was no 



