July 8, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



19 



time appears the first dawn of conscience. And so, with their 

 regularly alternating analysis and synthesis, Rosmini would have 

 gone on sketching for us the characteristics of the succeeding 

 orders. But here, to our misfortune, the treatise terminates, and 

 we ha\'e nothing but rough notes and hints as to what would ha\'e 

 followed. We must not, howe\-er, forget the warning which Ros- 

 mini gives us, more than once, concerning his stages of cognition. 

 He only gives us the order in which they commence ; but, when once 

 commenced, they go on through all the other periods, increasing in 

 power and widening in application. Moreover, the acts of the 

 understanding are always e.xcited by some stimulus external to 

 themselves, and depend on this stimulus ; and hence, when particu- 

 lar stimuli come late, we shall find the corresponding cognitions 

 belonging to earlier orders coming into being alongside of cogni- 

 tions belonging to the later orders. 



But what of the practical application of all this .' some of our 

 readers may ask. Well, Rosmini himself answers, " I am a thinker, 

 a psychologist. You good people of practice and experience must 

 make the practical application of my principles for yourselves." But 

 being human, as well as a psychologist, he cannot altogether re- 

 frain : he gives us some of his own ' practical applications ; ' and of 

 these, some are very striking and suggestive, and some of — well, 

 very" moderate utility. " The object of instruction," Rosmini tells 

 us. " is to bring the young to know, and it may therefore be called 

 the art of properly directing the attention of the youthful mind." 

 " There are always three distinct parts of instruction," he tells us 

 elsewhere : " (a) that which serves to increase in the mind 

 of the pupil the number of cognitions he has gained in the 

 preceding order, and to make them more perfect ; (d) that which 

 enables the pupil to pass from the order of cognition in which he is, 

 to the next higher order ; and {c) that which ser\'es to exercise and 

 perfect the pupil in the knowledge belonging to the order he has 

 just reached." He adds that it is evident that the language and 

 style of the teacher should vary according to the order of cognition 

 attained by the child. All language that goes beyond that order is 

 wasted ; or, worse still, it will produce confusion. In treating of 

 the first order of cognition, he points out that nature has placed 

 perception as the foundation of the whole immense pyramid of 

 human knowledge, and that perception therefore should be the 

 foundation of all human education. " Nature herself leads the child 

 to obser\'e every thing, and to experiment on every thing ; but all 

 these experiments and perceptions are unconnected and desultory. 

 The earliest office of the educator, therefore, consists in regulat- 

 ing the child's observations and experiments, so as to lead him 

 to perceive and to perfect his perceptions." The application of this 

 is little more than hinted at, but enough is given to show how 

 strikingly alike Rosmini and Froebel were with regard to the 

 earliest childhood, though each worked independently and in com- 

 plete ignorance of the views of the other. Indeed, one of the chief 

 advantages of studying Rosmini's system is the added strength and 

 clearness and meaning which it so frequently gives to the plans of 

 Froebel, who, as a practical teacher, stands a head and shoulders 

 taller than his Italian contemporary. Nor is Rosmini's psychology 

 always equal to Froebel's. He has, for instance, some strange 

 views on language, which, but for Prof. Max Miiller's championship 

 of verj' similar ones, would come upon us not only as novel, but 

 also as startling. Rosmini holds that " by language we form our 

 ideas," and that " man could not have invented that part of lan- 

 guage which expresses abstractions." But, what is far more dis- 

 concerting to a teacher, is to find him stating that " one of the 

 fundamental principles which should govern the instruction given, 

 from first to last, is to consider language as the universal instrument 

 provided by nature for the intellectual development of man," and to 

 see. in the application, that this means that education is to be 

 mainly a training in the use of words. Still, undoubtedly many of 

 the practical hints he gives for the teaching of reading and writing 

 will be found \'aluable, though they are applied somewhat prema- 

 turely ; and much that he says on the use of music, and on picture- 

 teaching, is highly suggestible. On the whole, however, we are 

 inclined to think that teachers will be most struck with, and 

 set most value on, the exposition given of the gradual development 

 of the moral sentiment. — "based as upon a rock, on the great fact, 

 that, rooted in the depths of the child's nature, there is a primary 



necessity of growing respect and love to whatsoever intelligent 

 being he comes to know," — and with this, step by step, the corre- 

 sponding gradual training. We have met with nothing elsewhere 

 so soundly reasoned, so clearly expressed, and so practically sug- 

 gestixe ; though here, again, the general line pursued is the same 

 as that pursued by Froebel. 



For the present we will say no more. But we hope we have said 

 enough to prove to teachers that ' The Ruling Principle of Method ' 

 is a book to be studied with pleasure and profit. And, though 

 sorne of us may be inclined to pronounce the system as rather 

 logical than psychological, we shall all of us gain by coming in con- 

 tact with a mind so eminently clear and reasonable, and so full of 

 human kindliness. 



T. Macci Plautz Captivi. With Introduction and Notes. By 



W. M. Lindsay, M.A. Oxford, Clarendon Pr. i6°. 

 Anglice Redde7ida ; or, Extracts for Unseen Translation. 

 (Second Series.) Selected by C. S. Jerram, M.A. Oxford, 

 Clarendon Pr. 16°. 

 From the Clarendon Press comes a very neat little edition of 

 the ' Captivi ' of Plautus, by Mr. W. M. Lindsay, intended as a com- 

 panion to the ' Trinnummus ' of Messrs. Freeman & Sloman of the 

 Westminster School, where the plays of Plautus have been fre- 

 quently exhibited by the scholars with much dramatic and archaeo- 

 logical success. The only fault to be found with those exhibitions, 

 however, is their practice of ignoring the musical element, that 

 must undoubtedly have been an important feature in the original 

 production of the Plautine plays. In fact, the ancient divisions of 

 the comedies were effected solely by the musical passages, or 

 ' Cantica ; ' and in the manuscript the name of the musical per- 

 former at the first exhibition of the play is often given in the title, 

 or, rather, after it. In the present edition of the ' Captivi,' Mr. 

 Lindsay has very properly called attention to this fact, which even 

 careful students of the Roman drama are too apt to overlook ; and 

 his remarks, although unduly brief, will be instructi\'e to the young 

 student, for whom this little book is intended. Within the limits 

 which the editor has marked for himself in the preface, he has 

 done very excellent work, availing himself of the most recent 

 German research, and giving notes, that, while useful to the school- 

 boy, are often very suggestive to the more mature scholar. Mr. 

 Lindsay properly regards the Plautus lecture as affording " the best 

 opportunity for teaching the etymology and structure of Latin 

 words," and he has therefore given this side of the subject par- 

 ticular attention in the notes. The book may be unreservedly com- 

 mended as being precisely what it professes to be, — an edition 

 of the ' Captivi ' that will " enable boys of the higher forms to read 

 with intelligence and interest a play which, more than any other 

 of Plautus, may suitably be put into a school-boy's hands." 



The reading of Greek and Latin at sight is deservedly becoming 

 an important part of the preparatory training for college, both in 

 England and our own country. The advantages of an ability to 

 read an ordinary classical author without the aid of a dictionary are 

 so obvious as to need no comment, and, as they impress themselves 

 more and more upon our instructors, a much-needed reform will 

 gradually come about. One may hope to see the day when college- 

 examinations will test not only the memory, but the genuine knowl- 

 edge, of the student, and when the object will be to discover not 

 merely how much he knows of some particular author, or portion 

 of an author, but of the language as a whole. Already sight-reading 

 of easy Greek and Latin has become a part of the required entrance- 

 examinations at Yale and Han'ard, it has for some time held a prom- 

 inent place in the classical instruction at Columbia, and the time is 

 not far distant when it will form one of the important tests of all our 

 leading colleges. Mr. C. S. Jerram of Trinity College, Oxford, already 

 well known as the author of several useful publications, has just sent 

 forth a volume of extracts for sight-reading, bearing the imprint of 

 the Clarendon Press, and entitled ' Anglice Reddenda.' It supple- 

 ments a much simpler work issued some years ago, and is intended 

 for students who may reasonably be supposed to have acquired a 

 somewhat extensive vocabulary. The extracts are about equally 

 divided between Greek and Roman authors, and are admirably 

 selected so as to interest and entertain as well as to instruct. It 

 may be doubted, however, whether such excerpts as odes from 



