Montaigne's thoughts upon learning and education are to be found in the first book of his Essays. The 24th chapter of this book treats upon PEDANTRY, and the 25th upon the EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.

These two chapters merit particular attention in a history of the science of teaching. Whether they exerted a direct influence upon systems of instruction in Montaigne's own day, I know not; it is certain, however, that they kindled the enthusiasm of two individuals, who became signally efficient in promoting the cause of education, namely Locke and Rousseau.

In such a history, we are naturally led to notice many writers, who are more or less strangers to the spirit of Christianity; but it is nevertheless possible to learn much from them.

I shall now make a few extracts from the 25th chapter of Montaigne, before alluded to, on the education of children. We must not expect to find any thing systematic, but simply aphorisms, or perchance fancies, which occurred to this strong-minded, sensible man, in the course of his life or his reading. The point of union for all these disconnected utterances, is the man himself in his character and culture.

"The indications of the natural bent of the mind, are so weak and so obscure in childhood, and what the child promises to become when a man is so uncertain and fallacious, that it is almost impossible upon such a foundation to predict his future course. Consider Cimon, Themistocles, and a thousand others, how unlike was their mature age to their boyhood. Pups, and bears' cubs shew their natural disposition as soon as they are born; but men, who are at a very early age indoctrinated with usages, opinions and laws, alter or disguise their real sentiments very readily. And yet it is difficult after all to force the natural propensities; hence it comes about, that when once we have entered upon a false course of training, we trouble ourselves and waste much time in the vain attempt to fit children for pursuits, for which they are not designed by nature. Meanwhile, in this difficulty, I am of the opinion, that they should ever be directed to the worthiest and most useful objects, and that we should not give too

much heed to those unmeaning indications and presages, which we imagine we observe in their earliest actions."

"I would advise that care be taken to select for the child a tutor, whose head is sound and clear, rather than full of learning: regard should be paid to both these points, to be sure, but far more to integ rity and good sense, than to attainments. And he should not exercise his office after the old fashion; for the custom now is, to thunder knowledge into the pupil's ear, as if you were pouring into a funnel; whence it follows that he becomes fitted for nothing, except to repeat again what he has before heard. But I would prefer to have the tutor make an improvement in this custom, and at once, according to the capabilities of the mind which is committed to his charge, permit it to taste things for itself, and to choose and discriminate understandingly between them. At times he must assist his scholar in this exercise, and at times allow him to go through with it alone. He must not himself always strike the key-note, nor always assume the lead; he must hear the scholar likewise, and let him give his views of the subject of his lesson. Socrates, and after him Arcesilaus, allowed their disciples to speak first, and then they themselves discussed the topics thus introduced. The authority of teachers is very frequently an obstacle in the way of those who desire to learn. [Cicero, Nat. Deor. Lib. 1.] It is a good thing for him to let the pupil run before him, that he may become acquainted with his gait, and thereby may judge how much he himself must abate of his own speed, in order to accommodate himself to his pupil's powers. If we overlook this due proportion, we spoil every thing. To attain it, and to observe it carefully and closely, is the most urgent of all the duties, which I would enjoin upon the tutor; and it is, moreover, a proof of a lofty and a strong intellect to be able thus to descend to a level with childhood, and thereby to direct and guide it. But since it is the custom now-a-days for teachers of a certain stamp, to attempt the education of a multitude of children, all different in their dispositions and their talents, all at the same time and by the same method, we can not wonder, when among them all, scarce two or three ever shew any good fruits from such discipline. The tutor must require of his pupil an understanding, not merely of the words of his lesson, but also of their meaning and their appropriateness. He must judge of the effect of his teachings, not on the testimony of his pupil's memory, but on that of his conduct. He must exhibit whatever his pupil shall have learned in many different lights, and apply it to many dif ferent subjects, in order to see whether he comprehends it, and has mastered it thoroughly. It is a mark of indigestion, when the

stomach throws off the food which we take into it, unchanged. For it does not discharge its functions properly, unless it alters, either in nature or in form, that which we have given it to digest. We have been so long trammeled by leading-strings, that we can not walk alone; both our freedom and our strength is gone.

They are always in wardship, and never become their own masters.' [Seneca, Epist. 33.] I was well acquainted with an honest man in Pisa, but who was so great an Aristotelian, that his most prominent tenet was this: "The touchstone of all well-grounded opinions and of all truths, is their harmony with the doctrines of Aristotle; every thing else is mere shadow and emptiness; for Aristotle established every thing, and enunciated every thing. The tutor must therefore lead his pupil to weigh every opinion, and to adopt nothing on mere authority. He should not suffer him to take on trust a principle from Aristotle, any more than a dogma from Epicurus or the Stoics. He should make known to him all the varieties of opinion upon any given subject, and if he chooses among them, so much the better; but if not, why, let him doubt. "There are times when doubting is better than believing.' [Dante Inf. c. 11.]

As we shall see, this passage exerted a vast influence upon Rousseau, in whose Emile an ideal tutor is portrayed, who educates an ideal boy after an ideal and Utopian system. Rousseau, likewise, requires his pupil to form opinions for himself, and, with a mature insight, to choose, not only his philosophy, but even his religion, from amid the various systems and forms, of which the world is so full. "If he can not choose," says Rousseau," let him doubt." This radically corrupt sentiment, which is in direct opposition to Augustin's profound as well as true saying, "faith goes before understanding," is widely diffused at the present day. I shall examine it more closely further on.

"The bees gather the sweets of every flower, but the honey they make is no longer that of thyme or marjoram, but purely their own. So should the pupil alter and transmute whatever he derives from others, in order to make it all his own."

This beautiful and apt comparison we frequently meet with, in Erasmus and Bacon. But nothing interferes with this instinctive process of intellectual assimilation in the minds of youth, so much as the practice of questioning and doubting, recommended by Montaigne. A blessing upon spiritual growth comes only through a believing, humble self-surrendery, and through this alone is a genial quickening of the receptive faculties possible.

"Verily, we'make our children timorous, and cowardly, by giving them no freedom to do any thing of themselves. Who of us ever

asks his scholar, what he thinks of rhetoric or grammar? of this or that passage in Cicero? These things are only driven into the memory, like oracles, whose whole essence consists in the letters and syllables of which they are composed. But external knowledge is no knowledge at all; it is nothing but the possession of that which has been intrusted to the memory. What, on the other hand we truly know, we can make available without an appeal to authority, and without first examining our book, to see whether it is thus or so."

Thus he renders prominent the formation of independent opinions by children, in contrast with the slavish method, as hitherto practiced, of depending on external knowledge; a method, which is an endless source of innumerable evils.

"I could only wish that those dancing masters, Paluel and Pompey, could have taught us their pirouettes, merely by looking at them, without our having had to bestir ourselves at all; even as those teachers of ours, would develop our understandings into action without stimulating them into any sort of activity; or, that we could be taught to manage a horse, to handle a pike, or to touch a lute, without the necessity of practicing, just as our tutors aim to make us good reasoners or good speakers, without exercising us in speaking or in reasoning."

An advocacy of self-activity, as an important element in mental culture, and produced by exercise, as opposed to entire passivity; that education, which leads to solid art, not merely to flimsy, theoretical science is thus set forth.

"The opinion is universally received, that it is not good for a child to be educated at home; for natural affection renders even the most judicious of parents too tender-hearted and yielding. They can not bear to punish their child, nor to see him hardened by frugal fare; and yet he must be brought up thus. Nor can they bear to see him return home from his exercises, covered with sweat and dust, and then be allowed nothing but cold water, with which to quench his thirst; nor can they suffer him to ride an unruly horse. And yet there is no help for all this; for whoever expects to educate a boy to be a brave man, most certainly should not render him effeminate in his youth, but must often, in his discipline, run counter to the precepts of physicians. Let him spend his days in the open air, and let him become familiar with danger.' [Horace, Carm. 1. 3. 2.] It is not enough to inspire him with fortitude; his muscles also must be hardened. For the mind, when not assisted by the body, has too much to do, and sinks under its superadded labors. I feel that my own is over-burdened by my weak and unstrung body, its companion, which

is always leaning upon it and looking to it for aid. I have often observed in my reading, that my masters, in their writings, in many cases, attribute to magnanimity and strength of intellect, those actions, which proceed rather from the thickness of the skin or the hardness of the bones. The pupil must be practiced in severe bodily exercises, in order that he may become insensible to all sorts of pain. The authority of the tutor likewise, which should be unlimited, is interrupted and checked by the presence of the parents. Moreover the homage rendered to the young master by the servants, and the opinion which he imperceptibly imbibes at home of the wealth and the position of his family, these I think, are decidedly injurious to one of his years."

This is in entire harmony with Rousseau,-a contempt of parental training, and an over-estimate placed upon the tutor's functions. Nothing but the deep moral corruption and the depraved manners of the French nobility can excuse such unnatural sentiments in these

two men.

The noble prominence here given to the culture and the hardening of the body, is likewise in the spirit of Rousseau and his school, as well as in that of Fichte and Jahn.

"The pupil should be taught, never to engage in any conversation or controversy, unless he has an antagonist, who is able to cope with him; nor even then, to make use of all the arguments, which can serve his purpose. But let him be formed to a nice discrimination between different arguments, and to a desire to use those alone, which he absolutely needs; and by consequence, to brevity. Especially let it be enjoined upon him, to lay down his weapons before the truth, and to surrender himself unconditionally to it, as soon as he perceives it, whether on the side of his opponent, or in his own consciousness."

"Let the conscience and the virtue of the pupil shine forth in his discourse, but let them be ever under the dominion of his reason. Make it distinctly understood by him, that to acknowledge and correct any mistakes which he may have made in whatever he has advanced, though they should have been perceived by no one but himself, is a mark of good judgment and candor, those admirable qualities, for which he is striving; and, on the contrary, that obstinacy and a spirit of wrangling are despicable traits, and to be found mostly in narrow minds; while, to reconsider or to alter one's opinions, and even in the heat of debate, to give up a bad cause, betokens an eminently independent and a philosophical character."

Worldly wisdom and the spirit of Christianity thus coincide in the No. 11.-VOL. IV., No. 2.]—30.