with the objects of thought and not with words merely, we must not forget
that the scholastic aspect of things will differ from the practical.
When brought into the schoolroom the thing must be divested of details
and surroundings, and used to give a conception of one of a class. The
fir tree of the schoolboy cannot be the fir tree of the wood-cutter. The
“boiler” becomes a cylinder subject to internal or external pressure. It
is not the thing that the engine-driver knows will burn and corrode, get
foul in its tubes and loose in its joints, and be liable to burst. (See
Mr. C. H. Benton on “Practical and Theoretical Training” in _Spectator_,
10th Nov., 1888). The school knowledge of things no less than of words
may easily be over-valued. It should be given not for itself but to
excite interest and draw out the powers of the mind.
[84] Ruskin seems to be echoing Comenius (of whom perhaps he never heard)
when he says “To be taught to see is to gain word and thought at once,
and both true.” (_Address at Camb. Sch. of Art_, Oct. 1858.)
[85] As far as my experience goes there are few men capable both of
teaching and being taught, and of these rare beings Comenius was a noble
example. The passage in which he acknowledges his obligation to the
Jesuits’ _Janua_ is a striking proof of his candour and open-mindedness.
As an experiment in language-teaching this _Janua_ is a very interesting
book, and will be well worth a note. From Augustin and Alois de Backer’s
_Bibliothèque des Ecrivains de la C. de Jésus_, I learn that the author
William Bath or Bathe [Latin Bateus] was born in Dublin in 1564, and
died in Madrid in 1614. “A brief introduction to the skill of song as
set forth by William Bathe, gent.” is attributed to him; but we know
nothing of his origin or occupation till he entered on the Jesuit
noviciate at Tournai in 1596. Either before or after this “he ran” as
he himself tells us “the pleasant race of study” at Beauvais. After
studying at Padua he was sent as Spiritual Father to the Irish College at
Salamanca. Here, according to C. Sommervogel he wrote two Latin books.
He also designed the _Janua Linguarum_, and carried out the plan with
the help of the other members of the college. The book was published at
Salamanca “apud de Cea Tesa” 1611, 4to. Four years afterwards an edition
with English version added was published in London edited by Wm. Welde.
I have never seen the Spanish version, but a copy of Welde’s edition
(wanting title page) was bequeathed to me by a friend honoured by all
English-speaking students of education, Joseph Payne. The _Janua_ must
have had great success in this country, and soon had other editors. In an
old catalogue I have seen “_Janua Linguarum Quadrilinguis_, or a Messe
of Tongues, Latine, English, French, Spanish, neatly served up together
for a wholesome repast to the worthy curiositie of the studious, sm.
4to, Matthew Lowndes, 1617.” This must have been the early edition of
Isaac Habrecht. I have his “_Janua Linguarum Silinguis_. _Argentinæ_
(Strassburg), 1630,” and in the Preface he says that the first English
edition came out in 1615, and that he had added a French version and
published the book at London in four languages in 1617. I have seen
“sixth edition 1627,” also published by Lowndes, and edited “opera I. H.
(John Harmar, called in Catalogue of British Museum ‘Rector of Ewhurst’)
Scholæ Sancti Albani Magistri primarii.” Harmar, I think, suppressed all
mention of the author of the book, but he kept the title. This seems to
have been altered by the celebrated Scioppius who published the book as
_Pascasii Grosippi Mercurius bilinguis_.
This Jesuits’ _Janua_ is one of the most interesting experiments in
language teaching I ever met with. Bathe and his co-adjutors collected
as they believed all the common root words in the Latin language; and
these they worked up into 1,200 short sentences in the form of proverbs.
After the sentences follows a short Appendix _De ambiguis_ of which the
following is a specimen: “Dum malum comedis juxta malum navis, de malo
commisso sub malo vetita meditare. While thou eatest an apple near the
mast of a ship, think of the evil committed under the forbidden apple
tree.” An alphabetical index of all the Latin words is then given, with
the number of the sentence in which the word occurs.
Prefixed to this _Janua_ we find some introductory chapters in which
the problem: What is the best way of learning a foreign language? is
considered and some advance made towards a solution. “The body of
every language consisteth of four principal members—words, congruity,
phrases, and elegancy. The dictionary sets down the words, grammar the
congruities, Authors the phrases, and Rhetoricians (with their figures)
the elegancy. We call phrases the proper forms or peculiar manners of
speaking which every Tongue hath.” (Chap. 1 _ad f._) Hitherto, says
Bathe, there have been in use, only two ways of learning a language,
“regular, such as is grammar, to observe the congruities; and irregular
such as is the common use of learners, by reading and speaking in vulgar
tongues.” The “regular” way is more certain, the “irregular” is easier.
So Bathe has planned a middle way which is to combine the advantages of
the other two. The “congruities” are learnt regularly by the grammar. Why
are not the “words” learned regularly by the dictionary? 1st, Because
the Dictionary contains many useless words; 2nd, because compound words
may be known from the root words without special learning; 3rd, because
words as they stand in the Dictionary bear no sense and so cannot be
remembered. By the use of this _Janua_ all these objections will be
avoided. Useful words and root words only are given, and they are worked
up into sentences “easy to be remembered.” And with the exception of a
few little words such as _et_, _in_, _qui_, _sum_, _fio_ no word occurs a
second time; thus, says Bathe, the labour of learning the language will
be lightened and “as it was much more easy to have known all the living
creatures by often looking into Noe’s Ark, wherein was a selected couple
of each kind, than by travelling over all the world until a man should
find here and there a creature of each kind, even in the same manner
will all the words be far more easily learned by use of these sentences
than by hearing, speaking or reading until a man do accidentally meet
with every particular word.” (Proeme _ad f._) “We hope no man will be
so ingrateful as not to think this work very profitable,” says the
author. For my own part I feel grateful for such an earnest attempt at
“retrieving of the curse of Babylon,” but I cannot show my gratitude by
declaring “this work very profitable.” The attempt to squeeze the greater
part of a language into 1,200 short sentences could produce nothing
better than a curiosity. The language could not be thus squeezed into the
memory of the learner.
[86] This book must have had a great sale in England. Anchoran’s
version (the Latin title of which is _Porta_ not _Janua_) went through
several editions. I have a copy of _Janua Linguarum Reserata_ “formerly
translated by Tho. Horn: afterwards much corrected and amended by Joh.
Robotham: now carefully reviewed and exactly compared with all former
editions, foreign and others, and much enlarged both in the Latine and
English: together with a Portall ... by G. P. 1647.” “W. D.” was a
subsequent editor, and finally it was issued by Roger Daniel, to whom
Comenius dedicates from Amsterdam in 1659 as “Domino Rogero Danieli,
Bibliopolæ ac Typographo Londinensi celeberrimo.”
[87] Eilhardus Lubinus or Eilert Lueben, born 1565; was Professor first
of Poetry then of Theology at Rostock, where he died in 1621. This
projector of the most famous school-book of modern times seems not to be
mentioned in K. A. Schmid’s great _Encyklopädie_, at least in the first
edition. (I have not seen the second.) I find from F. Sander’s _Lexikon
d. Pädagogik_ that Ratke declared he learnt nothing from Lubinus, while
Comenius recognised him gratefully as his predecessor. This is just what
we should have expected from the character of Ratke and of Comenius.
Lubinus advocated the use of interlinear translations and published (says
Sander) such translations of the New Testament, of Plautus, &c. The very
interesting Preface to the New Test., was translated into English by
Hartlib and published as “The True and Readie Way to Learne the Latine
Tongue by E. Lubinus,” &c., 1654. The date given for Lubinus’ preface is
1614. L. finds fault with the grammar teaching which is thrashed into
boys so that they hate their masters. He would appeal to the senses: “For
from these things falling under the sense of the eyes, and as it were
more known, we will make entrance and begin to learn the Latin speech.
Four-footed living creatures, creeping things, fishes and birds which
can neither be gotten nor live well in these parts ought to be painted.
Others also, which because of their bulk and greatness cannot be shut up
in houses may be made in a lesser form, or drawn with the pencil, yet of
such bigness as they may be well seen by boys even afar off.” He says
he has often counselled the Stationers to bring out a book “in which
all things whatsoever which may be devised and written and seen by the
eyes, might be described, so as there might be also added to all things
and all parts and members of things, its own proper word, its own proper
appellation or term expressed in the Latin and Dutch tongues” (pp. 22,
23). “Visible things are first to be known by the eyes” (p. 23), and the
joining of seeing the thing and hearing the name together “is by far the
profitablest and the bravest course, and passing fit and applicable to
the age of children.” Things themselves if possible, if not, pictures
(p. 25). There are some capital hints on teaching children from things
common in the house, in the street, &c. One Hadrianus Junius has made a
“nomenclator” that may be useful. In the pictures of the projected book
there are to be lines under each object, and under its printed name. (The
excellent device of corresponding numbers seems due to Comenius.) For
printing below the pictures L. also suggests sentences which are simpler
and better for children than those in the Vestibulum, _e.g._ “Panis in
Mensa positus est, Felis vorat Murem.”
In the Brit. Museum there is a copy of _Medulla Linguæ Græcæ_ in which L.
works up the root words of Greek into sentences. He was evidently a man
with ideas. Comenius thought of them so highly that he tried to carry out
another at Saros-Patak, the plan of a “Cœnobium” or Roman colony in which
no language should be used but Latin.
[88] For full titles of the books referred to see p. 195.
[89] The solitaries of Port-Royal used to vary their mental toil with
manual. A Jesuit having maliciously asked whether it was true that
Monsieur Pascal made shoes, met with the awkward repartee, “Je ne sais
pas s’il fait des souliers, mais je crois qu’il _vous a porté une fameuse
botte_.”
[90] A master in a great public school once stated in a school address
what masters and boys felt to be true. “It would hardly be too much to
say that the whole problem of education is how to surround the young
with good influences. I believe we must go on to add that if the wisest
man had set himself to work out this problem without the teaching of
experience, he would have been little likely to hit upon the system of
which we are so proud, and which we call “the Public School System.”
If the real secret of education is to surround the young with good
influences, is it not a strange paradox to take them at the very age
when influences act most despotically and mass them together in large
numbers, where much that is coarsest is sure to be tolerated, and much
that is gentlest and most refining—the presence of mothers and sisters
for example—is for a large part of the year a memory or an echo rather
than a living voice? I confess I have never seen any answers to this
objection which _apart from the test of experience_ I should have been
prepared to pronounce satisfactory. It is a simple truth that the moral
dangers of our Public School System are enormous. It is the simple truth
that do what you will in the way of precaution, you do give to boys of
low, animal natures, the very boys who ought to be exceptionally subject
to almost despotic restraint, exceptional opportunities of exercising
a debasing influence over natures far more refined and spiritual than
their own. And it is further the simple but the sad truth, that these
exceptional opportunities are too often turned to account, and that the
young boy’s character for a time—sometimes for a long time—is spoiled
or vulgarized by the influence of unworthy companions.” This is what
public schoolmasters, if their eyes are not blinded by routine, are
painfully conscious of. But they find that in the end good prevails; the
average boy gains a manly character and contributes towards the keeping
up a healthy public opinion which is of great effect in restraining the
evil-doer.
[91] “The number of boarders was never very great, because to a master
were assigned no more than he could have beds for in his room.”
(Fontaine’s _Mémoire_, Carré, p. 24.)
[92] “Plerisque placet media quædam ratio, ut apud unum Præceptorem
quinque sexve pueri instituantur: ita nec sodalitas deerit ætati, cui
convenit alacritas; neque non sufficiet singulis cura Præceptoris; et
facile vitabitur corruptio quam affert multitudo. Many take up with a
middle course, and would have five or six boys placed with one preceptor;
in this way they will not be without companionship at an age when from
their liveliness they seem specially to need it, and the master may
give sufficient care to each individual; moreover, there will be an
easy avoidance of the moral corruption which numbers bring.” Erasmus on
_Christian Marriage_ quoted by Coustel in Sainte-Beuve, P.Riij, bk. 4, p.
404.
[93] Lancelot’s “New way of easily learning Latin (_Nouvelle Méthode
pour apprendre facilement la langue Latine_)” was published in 1644, his
method for Greek in 1655. This was followed in 1657 by his “Garden of
Greek Roots (_Jardin des racines grecques_)” (see Cadet, pp. 15 ff.)
The Port-Royalists seem to me in some respects far behind Comenius, but
they were right in rejecting him as a methodiser in language-learning.
Lancelot in the preface to his “Garden of Greek Roots,” says that the
_Janua_ of Comenius is totally wanting in method. “It would need,” says
he, “an extraordinary memory; and from my experience I should say that
few children could learn this book, for it is long and difficult; and
as the words in it are not repeated, those at the beginning would be
forgotten before the learner reached the end. So he would feel a constant
discouragement, because he would always find himself in a new country
where he would recognize nothing. And the book is full of all sorts of
uncommon and difficult words, and the first chapters throw no light
on those which follow.” To this well-grounded criticism he adds: “The
_entrances to the Tongues_, to deserve its name, should be nothing but
a short and simple way leading us as soon as possible to read the best
books in the language, so that we might not only acquire the words we
are in need of, but also all that is most characteristic in the idiom
and pure in the phraseology, which make up the most difficult and most
important part of every language.” (Quoted by Cadet, p. 17).
[94] Lemaître, a nephew of La Mère Angélique, was one of the most
celebrated orators in France. In renouncing the world for Port-Royal, he
retired from a splendid position at the Bar. Such men had qualifications
out of the reach of ordinary schoolmasters. Dufossé, in after years, told
how, when he was a boy, Lemaître called him often to his room and gave
him solid instruction in learning and piety. “He read to me and made me
read pieces from poets and orators, and saw that I noticed the beauties
in them both in thought and diction. Moreover he taught me the right
emphasis and articulation both in verse and prose, in which he himself
was admirable, having the charm of a fine voice and all else that goes
to make a great orator. He gave me also many rules for good translation
and for making my progress in that art easy to me.” (Dufossé’s _Mémoires,
&c._, quoted by Cadet, p. 9.) It was Lemaître who instructed Racine (born
1639, admitted at Les Granges, Port Royal des Champs, in 1655).
[95] In 1670 the General of the Jesuits issued a letter to the Society
against the Cartesian philosophy. The University in this agreed with its
rivals, and petitioned the Parliament to prohibit the Cartesian teaching.
This produced the burlesque _Arrêt_ by Boileau (1675). “Whereas it is
stated that for some years past a stranger named Reason has endeavoured
to make entry by force into the Schools of the University ... where
Aristotle has always been acknowledged as judge without appeal and not
accountable for his opinions.... Be it known by these presents that
this Court has maintained and kept and does maintain and keep the said
Aristotle in perfect and peaceable possession of the said schools ...
and in order that for the future he may not be interfered with in them,
it has banished Reason for ever from the Schools of the said University,
and forbids his entry to disturb and disquiet the said Aristotle in the
possession and enjoyment of the aforesaid schools, under pain and penalty
of being declared a Jansenist and a lover of innovations.” (Quoted by
Cadet, p. 34.)
[96] Although so much time is given to the study of words, practice in
the use of words is almost entirely neglected, and the English schoolboy
remains inarticulate.
[97] Rollin somewhat extends Quintilian’s statement: “The desire of
learning rests in the will which you cannot force.” About attempts to
coerce the will in the absence of interest, I may quote a passage from
a lecture of mine at Birmingham in 1884, when I did not know that I had
behind me such high authorities as Quintilian and Rollin: “I should
divide the powers of the mind that may be cultivated in the school-room
into two classes: in the first I should put all the higher powers—grasp
of meaning, perception of analogy, observation, reflection, imagination,
intellectual memory; in the other class is one power only, and that is
a kind of memory that depends on the association of sounds. How is it
then that in most school-rooms far more time is spent in cultivating
this last and least-valuable power than all the rest put together? The
explanation is easy. All the higher powers can be exercised only when the
pupils are interested, or, as Mr. Thring puts it, ‘care for what they
are about.’ The memory that depends on associating sounds is independent
of interest and can be secured by simple repetition. Now it is very hard
to awaken interest, and still harder to maintain it. That magician’s
wand, the cane, with which the schoolmasters of olden time worked such
wonders, is powerless here or powerful only in the negative direction;
and so is every form of punishment. You may tell a boy—‘If you can’t say
your lesson you shall stay in and write it out half-a-dozen times!’ and
the threat may have effect; but no ‘_instans tyrannus_’ from Orbilius
downwards has ever thought of saying, ‘If you don’t take an interest in
your work, I’ll keep you in till you do!’ So teachers very naturally
prefer the kind of teaching in which they can make sure of success.”
[98] Here as usual Rollin uses Quintilian without directly quoting him.
He gives in a note the passage he had in his mind. “Id imprimis cavere
oportebit, ne studia qui amare nondum potest oderit; et amaritudinem
semel præceptam etiam ultra rudes annos reformidet (Quint., lib. j, cap.
1.)”
[99] Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel were also in this sense realists,
but they held that the educational value of knowledge lay not in itself,
but only in so far as it was an instrument for developing the faculties
of the mind.
[100] Henry Barnard (_English Pedagogy_, second series, p. 192), speaks
of Hoole as “one of the pioneer educators of his century.” According to
Barnard he was born at Wakefield, in 1610, and died in 1666, rector of
“Stock Billerica” (perhaps Stock with Billericay), in Essex.
[101] A very interesting suggestion of Cowley’s is that another house
be built for poor men’s sons who show ability. These shall be brought
up “with the same conveniences that are enjoyed even by rich men’s
children (though they maintain the fewer for that cause), there being
nothing of eminent and illustrious to be expected from a low, sordid, and
hospital-like education.”
[102] It would seem as if these Puritans were more active in body than in
mind: even the seniors, like the children at Port-Royal, _tombent dans la
nonchalance_. Dury has to lay it down that “the Governour and Ushers and
Steward if they be in health should not go to bed till ten.” (p. 30.)
[103] It is a sign of the failure of all attempts to establish
educational science in England that though the meaning of “real” and
“realities” which connected them with _res_ seemed established in the
sixteen hundreds, our language soon lost it again. According to a
writer in _Meyer’s Conversations Lexicon_ (first edition) “_reales_”
in this sense occurs first in Taubmann, 1614. Whether this is correct
or not it was certainly about this time that there arose a contest
between _Humanismus_ and _Realismus_, a contest now at its height in the
_Gymnasien_ and _Realschulen_ of Germany. For a discussion of it, _see_
M. Arnold’s “Literature and Science,” referred to above (p. 154).
[104] Many of Petty’s proposals are now realized in the South Kensington
Museum.
[105] Later in the century Locke recommended that “working schools should
be set up in every parish,” (_see_ Fox-Bourne’s _Locke_, or Cambridge
edition of the _Thoughts c. Ed._, App. A, p. 189). The Quakers seem
to have early taken up “industrious education.” John Bellers, whose
_Proposals for Raising a College of Industry_ (1696) was reprinted by
Robt. Owen, has some very good notions. After advising that boys and
girls be taught to knit, spin, &c., and the bigger boys turning, &c.,
he says, “Thus the Hand employed brings Profit, _the Reason used in it
makes wise_, and the Will subdued makes them good” (_Proposals_, p. 18).
Years afterwards in a Letter to the Yearly Meeting (dated 1723), he
says, “It may be observed that some of the Boys in Friends’ Workhouse in
Clerkenwell by their present employment of spinning are capable to earn
their own living.”
[106] Petty does not lose sight of the body. The “educands” are to “use
such exercises whether in work or for recreation as tend to the health,
agility, and strength of their bodies.”
I have quoted Petty from the very valuable collection of English writings
on Education reprinted in Henry Barnard’s _English Pedagogy_, 2 vols.
Petty is in Vol. I. In this vol. we have plenty of evidence of the
working of the Baconian spirit; _e.g._, we find Sir Matthew Hale in a
_Letter of Advice to his Grandchildren_, written in 1678, saying that
there is little use or improvement in “notional speculations in logic
or philosophy delivered by others; the rather because bare speculations
and notions have little experience and external observation to confirm
them, and they rarely fix the minds especially of young men. But that
part of philosophy that is real may be improved and confirmed by daily
observation, and is more stable and yet more certain and delightful, and
goes along with a man all his life, whatever employment or profession he
undertakes.”
[107] “In this respect,” says Professor Masson, “the passion and the
projects of Comenius were a world wider than Milton’s.” (_L. of M._ iij,
p. 237.)
[108] _Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib_ (“the Tractate” as it is
usually called), was published by Milton first in 1644, and again in
1673. _See_ Oscar Browning’s edition, Cambridge Univ. Press.
[109] The University of Cambridge. The first examination was in June,
1880.
[110] “Believe it, my good friend, to love truth for truth’s sake is the
principal part of human perfection in this world and the seed-plot of
all other virtues.” L. to Bolde, quoted by Fowler, _Locke_, p. 120. This
shows us that according to Locke “the principal part of human perfection”
is to be found in the intellect.