Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

while a citizen of Geneva [d] is admired for publishing seriously a new method of education, in which almost all, that is his own, is impracticable.

OBSERVING, that many people, taken with that author's neat and sprightly manner of expreffing himfelf, are, by what he has written on education, drawn into an opinion, that the method hitherto purfued in all civilized countries is fundamentally wrong, I have a mind to examine, a little, his plan, fo far as it may be called a plan, and enquire how far what is peculiar in it may be adopted, and the present rejected. This will give me an opportunity of laying before the public a few detached thoughts on this endless fubject, which may, perhaps, be found not unworthy of fome attention.

HAD this author been ever fo well fatisfied of the fuperiority of his own conceptions on the fubject of education, and had he even established the credit of his method on the only foundation it could fafely rest on, I mean fuccefs repeatedly experienced; it would ftill have been but decent to have prefented his thoughts to the public with fome air of diffidence, as he was to oppofe the univerfal practice of all the educators of youth of all ages and countries, and the judgment of the best writers on the subject, antient and modern. M. ROUSSEAU's manner of fhewing his modefty, may be feen by the quotations below [e].

ONE

[d] M. ROUSSEAU, author of Emile, ou de l'Education. [e] See vol. I. p. 23.-Un precepteur, lequel, &c. "A "mafter, who teaches him every thing, but to know him

felf,

ONE of the first of Mr. RoUSSEAU's peculiari

ties

"self, to improve himself, to conduct himself properly, " and to make himself happy." Who told M. ROUSSEAU, that masters never teach these most effential parts of knowledge? P. 24. "Ame venale! Crois tu," &c. [apoftrophifing a father, who propofes to maintain a tutor for his fon,] &c. "Sordid creature! Doft thou think to give "thy fon a mafter for money? Do not deceive thyself; "he is not a mafter, but a fervant, and he will quickly make thy fon a flave, like himself." P. 30. Le maitre ne regarde le disciple, &c. "The mafter looks upon the "scholar as a heavy burden, of which he longs to be “unloaded." P. 73. Que faut il donc penfer de cette education barbare, &c. "What then muft we think of "that barbarous education, which facrifices the prefent "to an uncertain future?" Then follows a long detail of the cruelty of making a boy learn to read, &c. Qui fçait, &c. "Who knows how many children perith the victims "of the extravagant wisdom of fathers and masters ?” No father, nor master, ever had a spark of humanity, till M. ROUSSEAU drew his quill. P. 93. He condemns Mr. LOCKE, and all who are for reasoning with chil dren. P. 97. D'infenfes inftituteurs, &c. "A fet of wrong-headed inftructors, think to do wonders, by making children wicked, in order to teach them what "is good." P. 100. Selon le progres naturel, &c. “Ac"cording to the natural procefs of things, children "ought to be educated upon a plan directly contrary to "that commonly followed." P. 101. Prenez le contrepied de l'ufage, &c. "Take a courfe directly contrary

[ocr errors]

"

to that which cuftom has established, and you will be "almost always right." In five thousand years, the world has produced only one man, who has had underftanding enough to draw a right plan of education.

E

P. 102.

ties is, his requiring of every father, that he educate his fon himfelf[ƒ].

XENOPHON and PLUTARCH differ a little from ROUSSEAU. They tell us, the Perfians and Spartans educated their youth in public schools, on purpofe to prevent the bad effects of parental indulgence. But their public schools were indeed on a different plan from ours. However, it is merely romantic to propofe, that peers, or members of the other house, perfons in public employments, merchants, tradesmen, and in general the busy part, that is, the greatest number, of fathers, fhould take upon them a charge, which, fuppofing them in every refpect qualified, muft, if duly attended to, employ the greateft part of

P. 102. O hommes! eft-ce ma faute, &c. "O men ! is it 66 my fault, that you have made all that is right, diffi"cult?" P. 104. Toujours fermoneurs, &c. "Ever

[ocr errors]

preaching, ever moralizing, ever playing the pedants; "for one idea you give them which you think good, you "fuggeft twenty bad ones; full of what paffes in your "own heads, you fee nothing of the effect, which you "produce in theirs." All the SOLOMONS, the XENOPHONS, the QUINTILIANS, the LOCKES, blind as moles. Mr. ROUSSEAU the only clear-fighted individual of the human fpecies. But I muft quote half the book, to give a view of the arrogant and self-sufficient contempt shewn by this writer for all who have ever meddled with either the theory or practice of education before he undertook the fubject.

[f] Comme la veritable nourice, &c. "As the mo"ther is the only proper wet-nurse, so the father is the "only proper mafter." Vol. I. p. 22.

of their time, and render it impoffible for them to fill their respective stations in life. Upon Mr. RousSEAU's plan, a father could be nothing but a father. Now, however that might have answered among the old Arcadians, or the modern Swifs, it would be ridiculous to propose it for Britain, France, Holland, and the other commercial countries of Europe.

If we confider fathers with refpect to their qualifi cations for this important office; many are almost wholly illiterate. What fort of education could they give their children? Many illiterate men are rich. Is it proper that the fon of a man of fortune fhould be brought up, as if he were to earn his living by hedging and ditching? What would be the confequence, if fathers were, in general, to educate their children, but that every generation would, as to knowledge, fall fhort of the laft, till at length, in a few ages, knowledge would come to be, in Britain, nearly about the fame pitch as it was in king ALFRED's days. Is this to be wished ?

I HUMBLY fubmit to the confideration of any perfon of common understanding, whether if every man were only to make his own fhoes (it is easier to make a fhoe than a man), people would, in general, be as neatly and fufficiently fhod, as they are at prefent. Aye, but, fays M. ROUSSEAU, the additional zeal with which the father would apply himself to the education of his own fon, would more than make up for the difference in ability between him and a profeffed mafter of youth. But, with M. RoUSSEAU's good leave, I expect to have a much better pair of shoes made

me by a profeffed fhoemaker, than my warmeft zeal or felf-love could enable me to make for my dear felf. Can any one imagine, that skill in the most curious of all arts, viz. that of educating youth, is attained without much fudy and much practice? Can any one imagine, a father, merely by becoming a father, becomes qualified to be an educator? Instead of agreeing with M. ROUSSEAU, that the father has, in confequence of his fathership, the advantage (for educating his fon) of a better qualified ftranger, I fhould turn it the contrary way, and fay, the father, though he should happen to be, personally speaking, better qualified than the ftranger, will not be likely to educate his own fon with fo good fuccefs as a ftranger of inferior perfonal qualifications. Accordingly, it is notorious, that many times judicious fathers have exchanged fons, during a certain period, that each youth might be under the care of a stranger, rather than of his father. And it is common to see a father, who intends his fon for his own profeffion, place him, during his apprenticeship or clerkship, with a stranger, of the fame profeffion, rather than have him at home, know ing that a youth will not be likely to take the fame liberties with a stranger, as with his father; and that a ftranger will not be likely to prejudice the youth by that faulty indulgence, into which paternal tendernefs is too apt to deviate.

Is it not, befides, to be expected, that a man who has given himself chiefly to ftudy, and has been but little hackneyed in the wicked ways of men, fhould have a more delicate way of thinking upon matters of right and wrong, which implies his being better able to explain thofe fubjects to youth, than a man

of

« FöregåendeFortsätt »