666 
been the fuccefs, that feveral of the fove- 
reigns on the Continent have fent confi- 
dential perfons thither, in order to take 
cognizance of the new methed, 
The mede here pointed out is borrowed 
from Rouffeau, and is to be found in his 
. Emile, towards the end of the fecond, 
and commencement of the third bock, 
with more details indeed, but without any 
material alteration. The whole appears 
to be included in the following plan laid 
down by tie philofopher of Geneva :— 
<* Let us transform our fenfatiens into 
ideas, but not {pring fuddenly and at 
once from fenfible to intellectual objects. 
It is by means of the former we are to ar- 
rive at the latter. In the firft operations 
of an infant’s mind let the fenfes be al- 
ways the guides. No other book than the 
world, no other inftruction than fa&s. 
‘The child who ieads does not think, he‘ 
dees nothing but read; he infru&ts nos 
himfelf; be learns but words.—Make 
your ‘cholar aitentive to the phenomena 
of nature, and you willfoon render him 
curious.” 
In conformity to thefe infruiions, the 
child fees every thing which he is defired 
to comprenend, and, if we are to believe 
what ts here told, ‘§ neceflarily compre - 
hends what he fees;*’ fo that he is, in 
fome meafure, led “ to invent the {cience, 
the principles ef which he is afterwards 
to be taught.” 
‘<The pupil, almof from the inftant 
of his birth,’’ it is addet, “ poffefles the 
ee of contemplati ing a phy fical ob- 
jects around him; in a fhort time he is 
enabled to name them; afrer this he cb- 
ferves them in refpect to their whole, as. 
wel} 2s their feveral parts, and thence ts 
made to confider their form, t 
fiv ms, and  thete 
From this flep he proceecs to compare 
them with each ct! ter, and then to feize 
and combine their mumerical connexicns. 
In fine; he at length evinces.an_ inclina- 
tion to imitate sham, and his hand, con- 
flantly guided by his eye, acquires the 
po: VET, by practice, of attaining more or 
iefS excellence. 
‘* Thefe 
are the four faculties, the fuc- 
cefive dev nelopeyene of which is the aim 
and end of the neqw method; and this de- 
veopment is always fortunate, always 
fure, becasfe it is minutely gracual, and 
cen! tantiy determined in the child, by the 
clear notion of its direét. ay in relpect 
to him, becaufe he never attempts to ef- 
6f fenable objects, 
lt- or to oe feen. Thus the 
may form, and is adtually 
their dimen-_ 
principal properties. 
| Retrojped? of French Literature. Méifcellaneous. 
able to form, in a very fhort {pace of 
time, a little profound arithmetician and - 
geometrician, tracing, without cither rule 
of compais, and in any given proportion, 
the moft complicated figures, without be- 
ing able either to read or write, or even 
to comprehend the form of the eyphers 3 
but by way of recempence for this, he 
will be in a condition to judge of every 
thing that furrounds him, and affuredly 
wil] be inftructed in a more folid and real 
manner, than any of our little DoGors 
of ten years of age, who are fo clever at 
determining the nature of a pronouns 
making the adjeCtive agree with the fub- 
ftantive, or even of defcribing the courfe 
of a Germanriver, relative to javieehi they 
never once, in the whole of their lives, 
will, in all human probability, hear ae 
one talk. ' 
‘¢ Tt is utterly improbable, however, to 
convince thofe obfiimate pedagogues, to 
whofe care infancy is confided—that nu=- 
mercus body of. men who are incapable of 
feparating from the idea of inftruétion, 
that of books to read—of leffons to be 
learned—and of paper to be blotted ; and 
it here cannot be too often repeated, that 
the end of a primary education is not fo 
much to inffru&—is not to inftruét at all, 
if you pleafe, as to produce, give birth 
to, and excite the curiofity natural to an 
infant, fo as to inftil into him that tafte 
of thofe obferving habits which make him 
necefiarily defirous of inftruStion. Ween 
thts has once been attained, education 
may be faid, in fome meafure, to have 
been completed ; becaufe the {cholar, from 
that moment, has no further oceafion for 
a precepicr, but for a guide whe, on his 
part, ougnt to be confidered as nothing 
more than a goed elementary treatife. 
But let us ceafe to infit relative to truths, 
at length, acknowledged by all, although 
generally forgotten in. the praftice, and 
haften at once to juftify and to prove the 
fact formerly mentioned by us, that if the 
child, inftruéted by the new method, is 
enabled to convince himfelf of the whzte. 
nefs of faowand the lguidity of water, 
he has, at the fame time, added to his 
fiock of information.’ 
We have thus prefented a fhort and» 
abridged account of a work which pro- 
fi fies “only to be a mere fummary, with- 
out pretending to give any decifive opi- 
nion, ebferving, at the fame time, how- 
ever, that the name of J. J. Rouffeau will 
not ferve as a pafiport to the new fyftem, 
at leaft inthis country. It would he un- 
fair, however, not to obfefve, that the 
fult Helyetic Diet deemed it improper to 
feparats 
. 
