The ruling principle of method applied to education

Preface

The work translated in the following pages was not published till after the death of the author, and is, in fact, only a fragment of a much larger work, which he had planned, and in which the education of the human being was to be carried on, through all the stages of life, on the principle of natural development here laid down and applied to infant education only. He rightly entitled it "The Ruling Principle of Method in Education," for it is the principle on which Natiu-e herself works ; and its applications, as given by Rosmini, and almost contemporaneously, though quite independently, worked out by Froebel, in his Kindergarten system, constitute the true art of education, founded on the science of human nature. I cannot better introduce the reader to the nature and scope of the work, and the history of its composition and publication, than by extracting the account given of them in the " Preface addressed to Italian Educators," prefixed to the original, by its editor, Francesco Paoli : —

" Towards the end of 1839 Antonio Rosmini undertook this work on Pedagogy, the occasion of his doing so being apparently the offer of a pious and generous-minded woman, Anna jMaria Bolorgaro of Stresa, to intrust to the Institute of Charity (the order founded by Rosmini) the management of the elementary school which her grandfather had founded in that place, and which was, in fact, undertaken by the Institute in the following year. Rosmini's aim, however, was not to compose a mere manual for elementary schoolmasters, but rather a complete treatise on Pedagogy, and to give a new instance of the fecundity of his philosophical system and its application to the art of bettering human life, parallel to those he had already given in his ' Rights of Man ' (Diritto), his

IV PEEFAOE.

' Politics,' his ' Treatise on Conscience/ and in his ascetic works. Pedagogy is thus included among the sciences of application, directed to form a philosophical doctrine and to fecundate philosophy and render it fruitful. Kosmini rested it immediately upon Anthropology and Psychology, giving the knowledge of the human faculties to be educated and theh' modes of action; on Idealogy and Ethics, giving the objects, both proxunate and ideal, by which the human faculties must be stimulated, in order to be properly ediicated ; on Ontology and Theology, giving the knowledge of the ends towards which the human faculties should harmoniously tend, to find in them rest and full satisfaction, which

is the ultimate goal of human education Nor did Rosmini

intend to treat only, as is generally done, of that part of human educa,tion which relates to childhood. He had in view also the adult and the old, the whole race, in short, because in the man, at every stage of life, there is something of the child ; there is a new development going on within him, which requires to be guided and assisted that it may reach a successful issue, and the man learn to educate himself. Hence, Rosmini divided his subjects into periods of life, computed, not by numbers of years, but by the degrees of cognition which the human mind successively attains in its intellectual development. The first of these periods begins at birth, and includes about six weeks. No definite cognitions can be assigned to this period, although it must have the primary and fundamental cognition of being, without which the new-born infant would not be human, for it would not have the light of reason The second period begins with the first smile and tears

of the infant, — that is, generally about the sixth week ; and its cognitions consist only of the simple perception of things as subsisting, to which correspond the volitions, termed by Rosmini affective, instinctive, which have these things for their object. This period ends with the child's first articulate word, — as a rule, about the end of the first year. Speech is the sign that the child has entered the third period, and that he has attained the second order of cognitions, formed by analyzing the first, and by abstracting the more interesting, sensible qualities of things from the ideas of the things in his mind (imaginal ideas); and to these correspond the affective volitions, having for their object these

PREFACE. V

more interesting, sensible qualities abstracted from the actual things, and from the other qualities to which the appetitive faculty is indifferent. The fourth period begins usually at about three years of age, and shows itself in the aptitude to learn to read. We have now the exercise of the judging faculty, which has become capable of connecting by synthesis the elements of the previous analysis, and of affirming the existence in a subject of the qualities before abstracted, constituting the cognitions of the third order, to which correspond the volitions appraising the various objects of which these qualities are affirmed. This is soon followed by the cognitions of the fourth order, — consisting in the comparison made between two objects previously analyzed, — and the judgment of appreciation, giving the preference to one over the other. To this order of cognitions correspond the appreciative volitions, choosing between two objects ; and the moral sense, which existed in germ in the preceding periods, now takes a larger development. About this time appears the first dawn of conscience, manifested in the volitions resulting from cognitions of the fifth order. These cognitions consist in a synthesis by which are determined the relations existing between two things combined into one, and conceived as one, of which conceptions the most important is that of the I and of self-identity. This period would seem to extend to the time when, as is commonly said, the child acquires the use of reason, or, as should rather be said, the free use of it, since the use of reason begins at the earliest period of life, and is manifested in the smiles and tears of the infant of six weeks old ; for the brute neither smiles nor weeps.

" The work of Rosmini only reaches to this period. But from a short memorandum which I found written, in his own hand, on a small piece of paper, as was his custom, it would seem that he intended to treat of ioxir following periods, which he would doubtless have subdivided, as before, by years of age. I found that, in the period from the seventh to the twelfth or fourteenth year, he proposed treating of the work performed by the mind through more and more developed reflection, towards attaining the conscious (reflective) knowledge of moral obligation and of law, to which corresponds a greater freedom of action. And T believe he would there have given the demonstration of what he had more vi PEEFACE.

than once said to me, that on that period principally depends the moral character of the man, for good or evil, through life. For the young and inexperienced mind throws itself wholly and with undivided energy into the acts it performs, which thus have a greater fulness of life and force than those of adults. Hence, the first moral or immoral act, deliberately performed, stamps on the moral character a good or evil impression of such tenacity that it makes virtue more or less easy throiighout the whole remainder of life. He then notes that the period of adolescence, extending from puberty to a little beyond the twentieth year, is that in which the youth, having attained sufficient reflective power and acquired clear notions of law, of duty, and of goodness, becomes master of himself, and can, and ought to, attend to the practice of private and individual virtues, by which he more and more educates himself. Then follows that other period of life in which the man applies himself to contemplate things as they are in themselves, rising thence to the thought of that which is eternal and necessary. Parallel with this thought, Rosmini appears to place the man's activity in working out the eternally beautiful through literature aud the fine arts ; in defending, by word and deed, the eternally just, and the inviolable rights of humanity; in giving aid and succor in various ways to his fellow-creatures ; and, hence, he calls it the period of action. Finally comes the last period of life, which he names the age of counsel and the age of repose or wisdom, after which follows the decay of the man.

" From the fact that Rosmini approximately assigned to each period a certain definite limit of age, it is not to be assumed that the period or the capacity of individuals is to be determined by years of age. So far is this from being true, that we not unfrequently find yoiiths who are men in sense, and men who remain childish triflers into old age. The periods are defined and made to depend necessarily on the orders of cognition; and, from the relation and graduation of the latter, we are shown how impossible it is to rise to the higher without having first passed through the lower.

"It was the intention of Rosmini, as appears from the title of the manuscript, to complete the work in five books ; but unfortunately of these we have not quite two, the sixth section of Book II.,

PREFACE. VII

which treats of the nature of the cognitions of the fifth order and the corresponding activities, but lacks the last two chapters, giving the instruction and education appropriate to that order. I had hoped to find some note or memorandum to supply, at least in part, this grievous loss, but my hope proved vain. I found nothing referring to the later books, beyond the memorandum given above, and, as regards the two missing chapters of the sixth section, only the following heads : ' Chap. III. Instruction. God, all-knowing, the rewarder of good and evil. Chap. IV. Education. Reason comes to the aid of obedience. Communication with the reason of others. How reason should correct sympathy. At this point the child should be guarded from temptations to falsehood. Means of cultivating truthfulness in the child. The rule against falsehood is ideal, and therefore weak. Ridicule is hurtful to children : things should be treated seriously. Praise and blame can be understood at this time. I think they might begin to be used then. If rightly bestowed, they help the conception of moral dignity. To give praise or blame earlier than this is useless, for they cannot be understood. Rule. — When the child has come to have moral principles and feels remorse, his conscience begins to give him a rule of action. In what the religious element of morality at that period consists.' This memorandum is so slight that I might have omitted it ; but I have inserted it here, that I may be able to affirm that the manuscript is published entire, just as it was found."

Every reader of the above notices must share the regret of the writer, Francesco Paoli, that Rosmini has left us only a fragment of a work so nobly planned. It is clear that, had life or leisure enough been granted to him, he would have given the world — what it has never had yet — a complete method and art of education , based on the applied science of human nature, and having for its aim and end the full and harmonious development of the latter, to the measure of the stature of the perfect man. Fortunately, the earlier part, which is preserved to us, contains the fundamental principles both of method and practice, which remain the same for all periods of life, and of which only the application varies with the varying degrees of individual development. If the former are thoroughly mastered, together with their groundwork in the laws vili PREFACE.

of human nature, the latter will be a comparatively easy task. I would point out here, what I have referred to in notes in various portions of the following translation, how far that task has been accomplished for us by Froebel, whose Kindergarten system, worked out by him in entire ignorance of Rosmini, and under conditions of birth, education, ckcumstances, so widely different, is yet the complete application, to every detail of infant education, of Rosmini's principles, or rather of the principles common to both, because both had arrived at them by the same road, — the profound study of human nature.

On one point only they differ ; namely, as to the direct dogmatic religious instruction to be given to young children. This diference was inevitable between a priest of the Church of Rome, the founder of a religious order under Papal sanction, and a Protestant lay-teacher, devoutly religious, indeed, but not confining his faith within the four corners of any theological formula. Rosmini, as could not be otherwise, based the practical religious education of the child on instruction in the dogmas and formularies of the Church. Froebel, on the other hand, with a consistency impossible to his great contemporary, refused to depart in religious instruction from the fundamental principle of both, that children should never learn words representing ideas which their minds were incapable of conceiving; and thus, while his whole teaching was imbued with the spirit of religion and directed to lead the infant mind and heart to the love and adoration of God, he excluded from it all dogmatic formulas given in words which the child could not understand. I must be allowed here, in justice to myself and my own profoundest convictions, to express my emphatic dissent from my author in this matter, not only as to the method of his religious instruction, but as to its matter, where that involves any of the distinctive dogmas or practices of the Church of Rome. I could not have undertaken this translation, had I not been permitted to make my standpoint on this question perfectly clear, and to enter this protest against any supposed acceptance of those passages of the work which inculcate such dogmas or practices. They are, indeed, singnalarly brief and rare in this fragment of the much larger work which Rosmini had projected, in the later portions of which dogmatic religious teaching would, we can scarcely

PREFACE. IX

doubt, have taken a larger place ; but, slight as they are, I feel bound in honesty to record my dissent as an individual from what I render as a translator.

I have striven to make my translation as faithful as possible. Only in one or two instances I have omitted notes that had no interest for any but Italian teachers, as referring to Italian schoolbooks, now out of date, or that gave redundant quotations in support of points fully established akeady. I have also occasionally condensed my author's somewliat diffuse illustrations; but in no case have I omitted or altered anything in the substance or logical order of the text. I may add, that for such slight variations and omissions as I have made I had the full sanction of an eminent member of the Rosmmian Order, at whose request I undertook the translation.

I cannot close this Preface without expressing my deep obligations to Mr. Thomas Davidson, who, when I was disabled by severe illness from continuing the correction of the press, most kindly undertook it for me, and superintended the final revision of the whole work, — a task for which his profound knowledge of Rosmini peculiarly qualified him, but which I cannot sufficiently thank him for undertaking in the midst of his own engrossing literary labors. He will find a better reward than my poor thanks in the consciousness that, without his aid, the English-speaking public would have been deprived for an indefinitely longer time of so valuable a contribution to the science and art of education as that afforded by the great Italian thinker in the work of which this is

a translation.

MARIA G. GREY.

Rome, January, 1887.

Table Of Contents

PAOB

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ANTONIO ROSMINI . . . . xix INTRODUCTION 3

Book I. On The Ruling Principle Op Method

Chap. I. — On the gradations which must be observed in the mental operations required of children 12

Chap. II. — The gradation of mental operations depends on the gradation of objects to which the attention of children is directed 13

Chap. III. — On the natural order in which objects present themselves to the human mind, first discerned in classification . . 15

Chap. IV. — Continuation. — Method of teaching children the classification of things 16

Chap. V. — Continuation. — Order in which objects present themselves to the human mind in the local distribution of things . . 29

Chap. VI. — On the natural order in which objects are presented to the mind in abstract reasoning 34

Chap. VII. — Recapitulation 37

Chap. VIII. — Natural and necessary order of intellectual action 38

Chap. IX. — Ruling principle of method 39

Xll CONTENTS.

Book II

ON THE APPLICATION TO LITTLE CHILDREN OP THE RULING PRINCIPLE OP METHOD.

PAGE

SECTION I. — On the Necessity of Classifying the Cognitions OF THE Human Mind according to their Order 41

SECTION II. — On the Cognitions of the First Order and THE Corresponding Stage of Education 45

Chap. I. — Which are the cognitions of tlie First Order .... 45 Art. I. — What is the stimulus which primarily excites the

intellectual attention of man 1 47

Art. II. — What is the object of the primary cognitions ?.. 47

Art. III. — What are perceptions ■? 48

Art. IV. — Of what improvement the human perceptions are

capable • 51

Art. V. — To the First Order of cognitions besides perceptions belong also the memory of perceptions ; the imaginal ideas ; the associations of the three species enumerated, together with the whole action awakened by them in the mind 56

Chap. II. — On the activities which respond to the First Order of

cognitioxis 59

Art. I. — Distinction between the two first periods of childhood 59

Art. II. — Activities proper to the First Period 61

Art. III. — Activities proper to the Second Period .... 66

Chap. III. — On the education and instruction of the child through the two first periods of life 73

Art. I. — On Religion 73

Art. II. — The acts of the will are stronger in childhood than in adult years 74

Art. III. — The tendency of education in early childhood should be rather to cultivate feeling and volition than intellect 76

Art. IV. — The actions produced by the animal feelings are connected by the laws of nature : the earliest volitions, and the intellectual feelings consequent upon them, are in themselves disconnected 77

CONTENTS. XUl

PAGE

Art. V. — Observations and experiments the child should be

led to make 79

Art. VI. — The educator should regulate the perceptions of

the child . . ^ 80

Art. vii. — Patience and sagacity required by the educator

for this purpose 80

Art. VIII. — Order to be introduced in the perceptions of

the child 81

SECTION III. — On the Second Order of Cognitions and THE Corresponding Education 84

Chap. I. — Third period of ch^hood 84

Chap. IL — What are the cognitions of the Second Order ... 85

Art. I. — What are the cognitions of the Second Order in general 85

Art. II. — Two kinds of cognition beyond the reach of the mind at a certain period of life, — the one because it is of too high an order, the other because it does not attract the attention, which lacks the necessary stimulus 85

Art. III. — What is the motive which impels the child towards cognitions of the Second Order 89

Art. IV. — The two kinds of cognition to which language impels the child's intelligence 91

Art. V. — What are the cognitions gained by the child through language 91

Art. VI. — What are the cognitions of the Second Order

§ 1. — Abstractions formed immediately from sensible things 96

§2. — First classification of sensible things 104

§ 3. — Integration 106

Chap. IV. — Of the teaching corresponding to the Second Order of cognitions 112

Art. I. — Four errors to be avoided by teachers 112

Art. II. — The gain to the mind from the regularity with which perceptions and imaginal ideas have been imparted in the preceding period 113

XIV CONTENTS.

PAGE

Art. ni. — ^ Matter and instrument of instruction, — language 114

§ 1. — The child should be taught to name the greatest

possible number of things 114

§ 2. — Limits of this instruction 114

§3. — Double practice in language, — natural and artificial 115

§4. — Continuation. — Artificial practice ....... 117

Chap. V. — Education of the active faculties corresponding to cognitions of the Second Order 125

Art. I. — Difficulty of determining which should be the negative and "which the positive part of education 125

Art. II. — Difficulty of determining how much the teacher should give the child and how mu(i^he should require from him 127

Art. III. — What is the moral rule of the child arrived at the Second Order of cognitions 133

Art. IV. — Can the morality of the child be injured while he is still in the second stage of cognitions 1 138

Art. V. — How to make use of the child's faculty of belief, to incline him to moral goodness 142

Art. VI. — Other means towards the same end 143

Art. vii. — On resistance, considered in relation to the Third Period in childhood 146

§ 1. — Exercise of patience which maybe required of the

child 147

§ 2. — Correction of the child's conceptions 147

§ 3. — Eectification of bad feelings 149

§ 4. — Eemoval of the limits too easily set to the benevolent

affections 150

Art. VIII. — Acts of religious worship which the child should begin to perform at this age 160

SECTION IV. — On the Cognitions of the Third Order and THE Corresponding Education 166

Chap. I. — The Fourth Period of childhood, and the difference between the periods and the orders of cognitions 166

Chap. II. — On the mental progress made at that age with regard to the cognitions of the preceding orders and the concomitant development of the other faculties 168 i

CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

Chap. III. — On the cognitions of the Third Order ...... 169

Art. I. — What are the cognitions of tlie Third Order in

general ? 169

Art. II. — Method we shall follow hencef oith in the exposition of human development 171

Art. III. — Processes by which the mind arrives at cognitions

of the Third Order 173

§ 1. — Cognitions of the Third Order are always reached

through synthetic judgments 173

§2. — What is contributed by analytic judgments to the

Third Order of cognitions 176

§ 3. — Catathetical ratiocination at this period 178

Art. IV. — Objects of the «"Signitions of the Third Order . . 179

§ 1. — Reality and ideality 179

A. Collections, nvmibers 179

B. Definite principles 1S6

§2. — Morality — moral principles 189

Chap. IV. — Development of the active faculties in the Fourth

Period of childhood . . ' 192

Art. I. — Increase of spontaneous activity 192

Art. II. — Desultoriness of action 194

Art. III. — Play 195

Art. IV. — Moral activity 197

Chap. V. — The instruction corresponding to the cognitions of

the Third Order 202

Art. I. — What is meant more fully by instruction corresponding to a certain order of cognitions 202

Art. II. — The language and style to be used bj' the teacher 202

Art. III. — Matter of instruction 204

§ 2. — Oral exercises 204

§ 3. — Teaching by pictures 210

Chap. VI. — The moral education corresponding to the Third Period 211

Art. I. — On the objective principle and the subjective principle on which the child acts at this period 211

Art. II. — On resistance, considered in relation to the child

in the Fourth Period 215

XVI CONTENTS.

PAGE

Art. III. — Divine worship 216

Chap. I. — Cognitions of the Fourth Order 217

Art. I. — Classification of the cognitions of the Fourth Order 217 Art. II. — Mental processes in the formation of cognitions of

the Fourth Order 218

§ 1. — Analytic judgments 218

§ 2. — Synthetic judgments 220

§ 3. — Hypothetical ratiocination 221

Art. III. — Objects of the cognitions of the Fourth Order . 222

§ 1. — Reality and ideality . 222

A. Differences 222

B. Numbers 223

C. Collections 224

B. Means and end 224

E. Intellectual perception of one's self (of the I proper) 224

G. First definite principles drawn from the ideas of

actions 234

§ 2. — Morality, moral principles, conscience 245

§3. — Idea of God = 250

Chap. II. — Development of the active faculties of the Fourth Order of cognitions 254

Art. I. — With the Fourth Order begin appreciative volitions 255

Art. II. — Freedom 256

Art. III. — How belief and docility naturally increase in the

child 258

Art. IV. — Desire to influence others 260

Chap. III. — Instruction adapted to the Fourth Order of cognitions 261

Art. I. — How language should be the f otmdation of all instruction of the young 261

Art. II. — Exercise of external activity, of imagination, memory, and the affections 263

Art. III. — Oral exercises in this period 265

Art. IV. — Instruction in reading and writing 266

Art. V. — Arithmetic 270

CONTENTS. XVii

PAGE

Art. VI. — Unification of ideas and tlioughts 270

§ 1. — Association of ideas 272

§ 2. — Order of ideas 275

§ 3. — Moral order of ideas 278

Chap. IV. — Moral education corresponding to the Fourth Order

of cognitions 283

Art. I. — The child's credulity should not be abused . . . 283

Art. II. — Obedience not to be abused 286

Art. III. — On maintaining the rectitude of the child's conscience 287

§ 1. — How the will of the educator, which is the child's

supreme law, should be good 291

§ 2. — The will of the educator, being the child's supreme law, should be good with a goodness the child can

recognize 292

§ 3. — How the child should be led upwards from the knowledge of the goodness proper to the human will, to

knowledge of the goodness proper to the Divine will . 295

Chap. I. — The development of intelligence which takes place in

the Fifth Order 300

Art. I. — Processes by which cognitions of the Fifth Order are

formed 301

§ 1. — Synthetic judgments of the third species .... .301

§2. — Analytic judgments of the Fifth Order 304

§ 3. — DLsjunctive ratiocination 305

Art. II. — Objects of the cognitions of the Fifth Order . . . 307

§1. — The real and the ideal 307

A. Numbers 307

B. Order of value between objects 307

C. Time 308

D. Cognition of the I 309

§2. — Morality, moral principles 311

A. Beginnings of remorse and conscience 311

B. Moral principles in the fifth order. — Duty of moral fortitude 316

XViii CONTENTS.

PAGE

C. Duty of honoring the will of the most worthy before

all others 318

D. Beginning of abstract moral principles, as distin-

guished from the concrete 323

E. Increased diificulty of right moral conduct, from the appearance in the mind of abstract moral standards 326

F. Difficulty of perfect truthfulness for the child . . 328

G. How the three categorical moral principles begin to manifest themselves clearly at this period . . . 332

§3. Notion of God 333

Chap. II. — Development of the active faculties and of the moral condition of the child in the Fifth Order of cognitions . . . 334 Art. I. — Development of the child's imagination; mainly

caused by definite principles regarding the action of things 334 Art. II. — Moral advantage of the development of the imagination 340

Art. III. — Moral injury from the development of the imagination 345

Art. IV. — Self-consciousness of the child at that age, considered in relation to morality. — Moral injury. — Selfishness 353 Art. V. — Continuation. — Two degrees of selfishness . . . 355 Art. VI. — Continuation. — Judgment by two measures. —

Childish artifices 356

Art. vii. — Moral apathy and restiveness 357

Art. VIII. — Moral advantages of self-consciousness . . . 359 Art. IX. — Continuation 360

SKETCH

LIFE OF ANTONIO ROSMINI.'

Antonio Rosmini Serbati was born on the 25th of March, 1797, at Rovereto, in the Italian Tyrol. His father. Pier Modesto Rosmini Serbati, belonged to an old, wealthy, and noble family, originally called Aresmino or Eresmino. His mother was a Countess Giovanna dei Tormenti, from Riva, on the Lake of Garda. Both, like many of their ancestors, were cultivated, generous, and pious people, zealously devoted to the service of the Church, but do not seem to have been in any other way remarkable. Antonio was a delicate and finely organized child, and very early showed signs of those virtues of head and heart for which he afterwards became remarkable, as well as of that religious and devotional tendency which gave aim to his whole life. Being fond of study, he entered, when still very young, the gymnasium of his native town, and there so distinguished himself that the rector was able to predict, in no indefinite terms, the boy's future greatness. After leaving the gymnasium he remained two years at home, studying mathematics and philosophy, for both of which he early displayed great tendency and capacity. It was in the course of these two years (1815-1816) that two of the most important events in Rosmini's life took place, — the discovery of his philosophical principle, and his determination to enter the priesthood. Firm in the latter resolution, and having overcome the strong opposition of his parents, he left

* This sketch is a summary of that given by Mr. Tlios. Davidson in his work, "The Philosophical System of Antonio Rosmini Serbati" (London, Kegan Paul & Co., 1882 ; Boston, Ginn & Co.), which I recommend to the perusal of all who wish to make themselves acquainted with the nature and extent of the services rendered to philosophy by one of the greatest thinkers of modern times, so little known as yet out of his own country.

(xix)

XX SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ANTONIO EOSMINI.

Rovereto in 1817, and began his theological course at the University of Padua. In 1820 he lost his father, who left him heir to the bulk of his very considerable property. In 1821 lie was ordained priest, and celebrated his first mass at St. Catherine's in Venice.