THE THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION AND THE CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING.
Locke's tractate on Education, though some of the maxims are reiterated
with needless prolixity, abounds in shrewdness and common-sense. Taking
as the object of education the production of "a sound mind in a sound
body," he begins with the "case," the "clay-cottage," and considers
first the health of the body. Of the diet prescribed, dry bread and
small beer form a large proportion. Locke is a great believer in the
virtues of cold water. Coddling, in all its forms, was to be repressed
with a strong hand. My young master was to be much in the open air, he
was to play in the wind and the sun without a hat, his clothes were
not to be too warm, and his bed was to be hard and made in different
fashions, that he might not in after-life feel every little change,
when there was no maid "to lay all things in print, and tuck him in
warm."
In the cultivation of the mind, far more importance is attached to
the formation of virtuous habits, and even of those social qualities
which go by the name of "good breeding," than to the mere inculcation
of knowledge. "I place Virtue as the first and most necessary of those
endowments that belong to a Man or a Gentleman; as absolutely requisite
to make him valued and beloved by others, acceptable or tolerable to
himself." Wisdom, that is to say, "a man's managing his business ably,
and with foresight, in this world," comes next in order. In the third
place is Good Breeding, the breaches of which may be all avoided by
"observing this one rule, Not to think meanly of ourselves, and not to
think meanly of others." Learning, though "this may seem strange in
the mouth of a bookish man," he puts last. "When I consider what ado
is made about a little Latin and Greek, how many years are spent in
it, and what a noise and business it makes to no purpose, I can hardly
forbear thinking that the parents of children still live in fear of the
Schoolmaster's Rod." "Seek out some body that may know how discreetly
to frame your child's manners: place him in hands where you may, as
much as possible, secure his innocence, cherish and nurse up the good,
and gently correct and weed out any bad inclinations, and settle in
him good habits. This is the main point, and, this being provided for,
Learning may be had into the bargain, and that, as I think" (a very
common delusion among the educational reformers of Locke's time), "at a
very easy rate, by methods that may be thought on."
These being Locke's ideas as to the relative value of the objects to be
aimed at in education, we need feel little surprise at the disfavour
with which he viewed the system of the English Public Schools.
"Till you can find a School wherein it is possible for the Master
to look after the manners of his scholars, and can show as great
efforts of his care of forming their minds to virtue and their
carriage to good breeding as of forming their tongues to the learned
languages, you must confess that you have a strange value for words
when, preferring the languages of the ancient Greeks and Romans to
that which made 'em such brave men, you think it worth while to
hazard your son's innocence and virtue for a little Greek and Latin.
How any one's being put into a mixed herd of unruly boys, and there
learning to wrangle at Trap or rook at Span-Farthing fits him for
civil conversation or business, I do not see. And what qualities are
ordinarily to be got from such a troop of Play-fellows as Schools
usually assemble together from parents of all kinds, that a father
should so much covet, is hard to divine. I am sure he who is able
to be at the charge of a Tutor at home may there give his son a
more genteel carriage, more manly thoughts, and a sense of what is
worthy and becoming, with a greater proficiency in Learning into the
bargain, and ripen him up sooner into a man, than any at School can
do."
The battle of private and public education has been waged more or less
fiercely ever since Locke's time, as it was waged long before, and,
although it has now been generally decided in favour of the Schools,
many of his arguments have even yet not lost their force.
Not only in the interest of morality, character, and manners did Locke
disapprove the Public School system of his day. He also thought it
essentially defective in its subjects and modes of instruction. The
subjects taught were almost exclusively the Latin and Greek languages,
though at Locke's own school of Westminster the upper forms were also
initiated into Hebrew and Arabic. This linguistic training, though
of course it included translations from the classical authors, was
to a large extent carried on by means of verse-making, theme-making,
repetition, and grammar lessons. Against all these modes of teaching
Locke is peculiarly severe. Grammar, indeed, he would have taught, but
not till the pupil is sufficiently conversant with the language to be
able to speak it with tolerable fluency. Its proper place is as an
introduction to Rhetoric. "I know not why any one should waste his time
and beat his head about the Latin Grammar, who does not intend to be
a critic, or make speeches and write despatches in it.... If his use
of it be only to understand some books writ in it, without a critical
knowledge of the tongue itself, reading alone will attain this end,
without charging the mind with the multiplied rules and intricacies
of Grammar." But without a knowledge of some rules of grammar, which
need not, however, be taught in an abstract and separate form, but may
be learnt gradually in the course of reading, writing, and speaking,
how would it be possible to attain to any precise understanding of the
authors read? The fault of the old system, which even still lingers on
in school instruction, consisted not so much in teaching grammatical
rules, as in teaching them apart from the writings which exemplify
them, and which alone can render them intelligible or interesting to a
beginner.
The practice of filling up a large part of a boy's time with making
Latin themes and verses meets with still more scathing censure than
that of initiating him into the learned languages by means of abstract
rules of grammar, and we may well imagine the cordial assent with which
many of Locke's readers, smarting under a sense of the time they had in
this way lost at school, would receive his criticisms.
"For do but consider what it is in making a Theme that a young lad
is employed about; it is to make a speech on some Latin saying, as
_Omnia vincit amor_, or _Non licet in bello bis peccare_, &c. And
here the poor lad, who wants knowledge of those things he is to speak
of, which is to be had only from time and observation, must set his
invention on the rack to say something where he knows nothing; which
is a sort of Egyptian tyranny to bid them make bricks who have not
yet any of the materials.... In the next place consider the Language
that their Themes are made in. 'Tis Latin, a language foreign in
their country, and long since dead everywhere: a language which
your son, 'tis a thousand to one, shall never have an occasion once
to make a speech in as long as he lives after he comes to be a man;
and a language wherein the manner of expressing one's self is so far
different from ours that to be perfect in that would very little
improve the purity and facility of his English style."
"If these may be any reasons against children's making Latin Themes
at school, I have much more to say, and of more weight, against their
making verses; verses of any sort. For if he has no genius to poetry,
'tis the most unreasonable thing in the world to torment a child
and waste his time about that which can never succeed; and if he
have a poetic vein, 'tis to me the strangest thing in the world that
the father should desire or suffer it to be cherished or improved.
Methinks the parents should labour to have it stifled and suppressed
as much as may be; and I know not what reason a father can have to
wish his son a poet, who does not desire to have him bid defiance
to all other callings and business. Which is not yet the worst of
the case; for if he proves a successful rhymer, and get once the
reputation of a Wit, I desire it may be considered what company and
places he is likely to spend his time in, nay, and estate too. For it
is very seldom seen that any one discovers mines of gold or silver in
Parnassus. 'Tis a pleasant air, but a barren soil; and there are very
few instances of those who have added to their patrimony by anything
they have reaped from thence. Poetry and Gaming, which usually go
together, are alike in this too, that they seldom bring any advantage
but to those who have nothing else to live on."
Repetition, as it is called, or "learning by heart great parcels of
the authors which are taught," is unreservedly condemned as being
of "no use at all, unless it be to baulk young lads in the way to
learning languages, which, in my opinion, should be made as easy and
pleasant as may be." "Languages are to be learned only by reading
and talking, and not by scraps of authors got by heart; which when
a man's head is stuffed with, he has got the just furniture of a
pedant, than which there is nothing less becoming a gentleman." This
unqualified condemnation of the practice of committing to memory the
choicer pieces of classical authors, whether in the ancient or modern
languages, would hardly be adopted by the educational reformers of our
own day. To tax the memory of a child or a boy with long strings of
words, ill understood or not understood at all, is about as cruel and
senseless a practice as can well be conceived. It is one of the strange
devices, invented by perverse pedagogues and tolerated by ignorant
parents, through which literature and all that is connected with books
has been made so repulsive to many generations of young Englishmen.
But if the tastes and interests of the pupil are skilfully consulted,
and the understanding is called into action as well as the memory, a
store of well-selected passages learnt by rote will not only do much to
familiarize him with the genius of the language, but will also supply
constant solace and occupation in those moments of depression and
vacuity which are only too sure to occur in every man's life.
Locke, like Milton (see Milton's Pamphlet on Education addressed to
Master Samuel Hartlib, and cp. Pattison's _Life of Milton_, published
in this series, pp. 42-46), had embraced the new gospel of education
according to Comenius, and supposed that, by new methods, not only
might the road to knowledge be rendered very short and easy, but almost
all the subjects worth learning might be taught in the few years spent
at School and College. The whole of Milton's "complete and generous
education" was to be "done between twelve and one-and-twenty." And
similarly Locke thinks that "at the same time that a child is learning
French and Latin, he may also be entered in Arithmetic, Geography,
Chronology, History, and Geometry too. For if these be taught him in
French or Latin, when he begins once to understand either of these
tongues, he will get a knowledge in these sciences and the language
to boot." To these subjects are afterwards added Astronomy, Ethics,
Civil and Common Law, Natural Philosophy, and almost all the then known
branches of human knowledge, though, curiously enough, Greek is omitted
as not being, like Latin and French, essential to the education of
a gentleman, and being, moreover, easy of acquisition, "if he has a
mind to carry his studies farther," in after-life. Concurrently with
these intellectual pursuits, the model young gentleman is to graduate
in dancing, fencing, wrestling, riding, besides (and on this addition
to his accomplishments the utmost stress is laid) "learning a trade,
a manual trade, nay, two or three, but one more particularly." And
all this programme apparently was to be filled up before the age of
one-and-twenty, for at that time Locke assumes that, notwithstanding
all reasons and remonstrances to the contrary, my young master's
parents will insist on marrying him, and "the young gentleman being
got within view of matrimony, 'tis time to leave him to his mistress."
This idea of an education embracing the whole field of human knowledge
and accomplishments is a vision so attractive, that it would be strange
indeed if it did not from time to time present itself to the enthusiast
and the reformer. But wherever the experiment has been tried on boys
or youths of average strength and ability, the vision has invariably
been dissipated. And, as the circle of human knowledge is constantly
widening, whereas the capacity to learn remains much the same from
generation to generation, the failure is inevitable.
Any account of Locke's views on Education, however meagre, would be
very imperfect, if it neglected to notice the motives to obedience
and proficiency which be proposed to substitute for what was then too
often the one and only motive on which the Schoolmaster relied, fear
of the rod. Corporal chastisement should be reserved, he thought, for
the offence of wilful and obstinate disobedience. In all other cases,
appeal should be made to the pupil's natural desire of employment and
knowledge, to example acting through his propensity to imitation, to
reasoning, to the sense of shame and the love of commendation and
reputation. Many of Locke's suggestions for bringing these motives
effectually to bear are very ingenious, and the whole of this part of
the discussion is as creditable to his humanity as to his knowledge of
human nature.
There is a large literature on the theory of education, from the Book
of Proverbs and the _Republic_ of Plato downwards. It is no part of my
task even to mention the principal writers in this field. But, besides
some of the works of Comenius, the Essay of Montaigne _De l'institution
des enfants_, and the tractate of Milton already referred to, we may
almost take for granted that Locke had read the _Schoolmaster_ of
Roger Ascham. This author, who was instructor to Queen Elizabeth, is
already sufficiently independent of scholastic traditions to think
that "children are sooner allured by love, than driven by beating, to
attain good learning," and to suggest that "there is no such whetstone
to sharpen a good wit, and encourage a will to learning, as is praise."
He protests almost as strongly as Locke against the senseless mode,
then and long afterwards prevalent, of teaching grammar merely by means
of abstract rules, and proposes, as in part substitute, the method
of double translation, that is, of translating from the foreign or
dead language into English, and then back again. Of the many works on
education subsequent to Locke's, the most famous is, undoubtedly, the
_Emile_ of Rousseau. On Rousseau's theories there can be no question
that Locke, mediately or immediately, exercised considerable influence,
though the range of speculation covered in the _Emile_ far exceeds that
of the _Thoughts concerning Education_. Of the points common to the two
writers, I may specify the extension of the term "education" to the
regulations of the nursery, the substitution of an appeal to the tender
and the social affections for the harsh discipline mostly in vogue
among our ancestors, the stress laid on the importance of example and
habituation in place of the mere inculcation of rules, and, as a point
of detail, the desirableness of learning one or more manual trades. One
circumstance, however, as Mr. Morley has pointed out, distinguishes the
_Emile_ from all the works on education which preceded it. Its scope
is not confined to the children of well-to-do people, and hence its
object is to produce, not the scholar and the gentleman, but the man.
The democratic extension thus given to educational theories has since
borne fruit in many schemes designed for general applicability, or,
specifically, for the education of the poor, such as those of Basedow,
Pestalozzi, and, among our own countrymen, Dr. Bell.
* * * * *
In connexion with the _Thoughts on Education_, it may be convenient to
notice the short treatise on the _Conduct of the Understanding_. It
is true that it was designed as an additional chapter to the _Essay_,
but the main theme of which it treats is connected rather with the
work of self-education than with the analysis of knowledge, or the
classification of the faculties. This admirable little volume, which
may be read through in three or four hours, appears to have been
intended by Locke as at least a partial substitute for the ordinary
logic. As in matters of conduct, so in the things of the intellect, he
thought little of rules. It was only by practice and habituation that
men could become either virtuous or wise. But, though it is perfectly
true that rules are of little use without practice, it is not easy
to see how habit can be successfully initiated or fostered without
the assistance of rules; and inadequate as were the rules of the old
scholastic logic to remedy the "natural defects in the understanding,"
they required rather to be supplemented than replaced. The views of
Bacon on this subject, much as they have been misunderstood, are juster
than those of Locke.
Right reasoning, Locke thought (and this is nearly the whole truth,
though not altogether so), is to be gained from studying good models
of it. In the _Thoughts on Education_, he says, "If you would have
your son reason well, let him read Chillingworth." In this treatise,
with the same view he commends the study of Mathematics, "Not that I
think it necessary that all men should be deep mathematicians, but
that, having got the way of reasoning which that study necessarily
brings the mind to, they might be able to transfer it to other parts
of knowledge, as they shall have occasion." The great difference to be
observed in demonstrative and in probable reasoning is that, in the
former one train of reasoning, "bringing the mind to the source on
which it bottoms," is sufficient, whereas "in probabilities it is not
enough to trace one argument to its source, and observe its strength
and weakness, but all the arguments, after having been so examined on
both sides, must be laid in balance one against another, and, upon the
whole, the understanding determine its assent."
The great defect of this tractate (but its brevity makes the defect
of less importance) is its singular want of method. In fact, it
appears never to have undergone revision. The author seems to throw
together his remarks and precepts without any attempt at order, and
he never misses any opportunity of repeating his attacks on what he
evidently regarded as being, in his own time, the main hindrances to
the acquisition of a sound understanding--prejudice and pedantry. But
in justness of observation, incisiveness of language, and profound
acquaintance with the workings of the human mind, there are many
passages which will bear comparison with anything he has written.
Specially worthy of notice is the homely and forcible character of many
of his expressions, as when he speaks of a "large, sound, roundabout
sense," of "men without any industry or acquisition of their own,
inheriting local truths," of great readers "making their understanding
only the warehouse of other men's lumber," of the ruling passion
entering the mind, like "the sheriff of the place, with all the posse,
as if it had a legal right to be alone considered there."
Except for the inveterate and growing custom of confining works
employed in education to such as can be easily lectured on and easily
examined in, it is difficult to understand why this "student's guide,"
so brief, and abounding in such valuable cautions and suggestions,
should have so nearly fallen into desuetude.