SCIENCE.-SUPPLEMENT. 



FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 18. 1887. 



ASPECTS OF EDUCATION. 



I. — Humanism. 



Since the revival of learning, secondary educa- 

 tion in Europe has passed through three phases, 

 which may be conveniently called humanism, 

 realism, and naturalism. The first is grounded 

 upon the study of language, and especially of the 

 two dead languages, Greek and Latin. The second 

 is based upon the study of things instead of words, 

 the education of the mind through the eye and the 

 hand. Closely connected with this, is the study 

 of those things which may be of direct influence 

 upon and direct importance to life. The third is 

 not, in the first instance, study at all. It is an at- 

 tempt to build up the whole nature of the man ; 

 to educate, first his body, then his character, and 

 lastly his mind. All theories of education which 

 have taken a practical form during the last three 

 hundred years may be ranged under one or other 

 of these three heads. Modern education, as we 

 know it, is an unconscious, but not the less a 

 real, compromise between the three ends. If we 

 consider each separately, we shall be in the best 

 position to understand the system to which they 

 have given rise. 



It is important to remember that the reforma- 

 tion in Europe happened at the time when the 

 best European intellects were directed towards the 

 study of the classics. This was not a mere coinci- 

 dence. The revival of learning, as it is called, 

 that is, the closer and more intimate acquaintance 

 with Greek and Latin texts, which had before 

 been known through translations and paraphrases, 

 was in itself the principal cause of a reformation. 

 The critical spirit thus engendered, the dissatisfac- 

 tion aroused with the teaching of the old religion, 

 the revolt against the schoolmen, were also effi- 

 cient in bringing about the reformation. The 

 education of the middle ages was encyclopedic, 

 in aim if not in reality. The seven-years course 

 of study — trivium and quadrivium — was in- 

 tended to comprise every thing that a man need 

 know. Grammar taught the whole science of 

 words, dialectics furnished a scholar with the 

 whole armor of argument, rhetoric invested him 

 not only with eloquence in speech but with the 

 more graceful gifts of poetry and imagination. 

 The science of music, the science of numbers^ the 



power of measuring the earth and the heavens» 

 furnished out the completely educated man. 

 Hand-books of the middle ages intended for students 

 cover the whole ground of human knowledge- 

 The ' Tresor ' of Brunetto Latini, the master of Dante' 

 is divided into three books ; the first book into 

 five parts, the last two into two parts each. The 

 first book speaks of the origin of all things. After 

 this comes philosophy, divided into its two com- 

 ponent parts of theory and practice. Theory has 

 three great divisions, — theology, the knowledge of 

 God ; physics, the knowledge of the world ; and 

 mathematics, the knowledge of the four sciences 

 which form the quadrivium. Practice has also 

 three divisions, — ethics, to teach us how to govern 

 ourselves ; economics, to teach us how^ to govern 

 our family and our belongings ; and politics, the 

 highest of all sciences and the most noble of hu- 

 man occupations, which teaches us to govern 

 towns, kingdoms, and nations, in both peace and 

 war. As a prelude to these nobler sciences stand 

 the preliminary arts of grammar, dialectics, and 

 rhetoric. 



It is true that before the reformation this noble 

 plan of education had become narrowed and for- 

 malized. The church had jiressed all knowledge 

 into its service, and no form of knowledge was 

 highly valued which did not contribute to the ser- 

 vice of the church. The methods of teaching 

 became corrupted : memory was substituted for 

 thought. There was a striking contrast between 

 the high aims of the best part of the middle ages 

 and the scanty attainments of its decadence : but 

 the shell was still there, and as long as that re- 

 mained, life might be poured into it. 



The renaissance swept away this effort as a 

 dream. Scholars brought face to face with Virgil 

 and Horace, with Cicero and Plato, were so won 

 by the charm of a new and marvellous language, 

 that all their strength was spent in explaining and 

 appreciating it. The literary results of the renais- 

 sance were twofold. On the one hand, it aroused 

 the pure enjoyment of literary form and expres- 

 sion ; on the other, by stimulating a more exact 

 scholarship and a more minute philosophy, it 

 urged on the human mind to inquiry and to rebel- 

 lion. 



Just as the stream of this revival was in full 

 flood, the reformation came, and separated the 

 culture of Protestants from that of the old church. 

 We do not sufficiently realize what a wrench this 

 was. We are so accustomed to regard Protestant- 



