GENERAL VIEW OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES
=Literature.=--_Dyer_, Modern Europe; _Duruy_, The French Revolution;
_Yonge_, Three Centuries of Modern History; _Andrews_, Institutes of
General History; _Lord_, Beacon Lights; _Taylor_, History of Germany;
_Guizot_, History of Civilization; _Draper_, Conflict between Religion
and Science; _Schwickerath_, Jesuit Education.
The history of the world since the seventeenth century has been crowded
with events, and characterized by movements of greatest moment to
mankind. It is not the purpose of this work to discuss political
movements, to chronicle wars, or to study the great upheavals of society
except in so far as they have a direct bearing upon educational
questions.[121]
The political chains that fettered the nations of the world have
gradually been broken until greater liberty has been secured, a more
perfect acknowledgment of the rights of the individual brought about,
and a more tolerant religious spirit fostered in every civilized land.
These things have exerted a tremendous force in the intellectual
emancipation of man. At last the long struggle of the centuries begins
to bear legitimate fruit, and the supreme educational purpose of
Christianity, that of asserting and maintaining the importance of the
individual, seems destined to complete realization. The noble truths of
brotherly love, equality before God, and human rights were obscured
during the long centuries,--obscured sometimes by the very institution
whose chief aim is to scatter light and give gladness to men. It has
remained for modern education to rediscover the educational principles
which the Great Teacher promulgated, and which through the struggle of
centuries failed of recognition, and bore indifferent fruit.
Among the many social and political changes that have taken place during
the last two centuries, we may mention a few that have a direct
influence upon education. Preceding centuries had prepared the way,--had
broken the ground and sown the seed, and now the world was ready to reap
an abundant harvest.
The great political events of this period may be briefly summarized as
follows:--
1. _The abolition of human slavery._--Great Britain, Spain, France,
Russia, and finally our own country have forever removed the shackles of
the slave within their borders. Perhaps the greatest of all emancipation
acts was that of Russia, which, in 1861, without bloodshed and without
serious disturbance, by royal decree, set free forty million serfs. The
abolition of slavery in nearly all civilized countries is the greatest
political triumph of Christian civilization. Without this there could
never have come that higher intellectual emancipation which is the aim
sought in all education.
2. _The extension of political rights._--This is another victory that
must be credited to the period under discussion. At the beginning of the
eighteenth century there was scarcely a nation that acknowledged the
right of the individual to a part in government, or to personal
freedom. Men were in vassalage to their immediate lord, who, in turn,
was obliged to acknowledge the "divine right" of the king over him. With
the exception of Switzerland, who for centuries had maintained her
freedom, and of England, who had secured the rights of man only by much
bloodshed, there was scarcely a people in the world that possessed the
right of self-government. Even England had secured that right only in
the latter half of the seventeenth century under the leadership of
Cromwell. This right she did not concede to her colonies, however, until
the American Revolution wrested her richest dependency from her, and
forever established the principle of self-government for a sovereign
people.
Immediately following the American Revolution came the French
Revolution, which taught the Old World the ideas so heroically
conceived, so bravely supported, and so successfully realized in the New
World. Nor is this all. The same principle has compelled the rulers of
most of the European nations to divide the responsibility of government
with their subjects, and to grant their people enlarged powers but
little short of absolute sovereignty.
3. _Science has been recognized as a powerful instrument of
civilization._--Through scientific discoveries there has been a
wonderful accession to material wealth, invention has been stimulated,
and progress has been made in all directions. The spirit of
investigation has been fostered, old theories and superstitions have
been abandoned, and truth has been established upon their ruins. In this
direction more has been done by science during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries than during the whole previous history of the
world. Man has now become master of heretofore unknown forces which he
may utilize as a blessing for the human race. We shall see in later
pages that scientific investigation has become the greatest educational
principle of modern times.
4. _Religious freedom has been attained._--The sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries witnessed many struggles for religious liberty, which resulted
in no decided victory. It was not until the last two centuries that
complete religious freedom was gained. Men are no longer bound to accept
ecclesiastical decrees without question, but every one may weigh and
consider, and freely decide for himself. Civil law protects, civil
society sustains, and public opinion justifies men in the exercise of
personal liberty in religious matters.
By the realization of these great principles educational progress has
been encouraged. The greatest obstacles have been removed, and the
future opens with possibilities of universal brotherhood, universal
peace, and universal education.
It remains for us to study some of the men who have contributed to the
educational progress of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to
trace the chief movements in the intellectual development of the race,
and to examine the school systems of the representative nations of the
world at the present time.
FOOTNOTES:
[121] It must be freely admitted that such influences are powerful in
shaping the destiny of man, and that they have had much to do with
education, as we have often shown in the foregoing pages. We must,
however, leave the tracing of the movements to each individual student.