The philosophy of training: or, The principles and art of a normal education; with a brief review of its origin and history. Also, remarks on the practice of corporal punishments in schools; and strictures on the prevailing mode of teaching languages

Front matter

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Preface

It must often have occurred to those interested in the question of education, and observant of the form in which it is usually presented to the public, how much more attention is ever bestowed upon its merely external features than its intrinsic nature and properties. Too much has ever been taken for granted regarding a knowledge of the subject itself, while the various modes by which its still undefined principles should operate and manifest themselves have been discussed inflnitesimally. The questions of a national or voluntary endowment — of a combined religious and secular, or an independent system — of a monitorial or simultaneous method — of explanatory modes and intellectual plans, have been the engrossing themes ; and a consideration of them has doubtless elicited many valuable suggestions and improvements. But these all refer to so many mere contingencies surrounding the subject-^adjectives, as one may say, of a substantive

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whose own qualities must be defined before the former can be shaped into harmonious adaptation to them. The learning to read, to write, and to cipher, with all other branches of school instruction, is in itself but a mode of education ; , the directing of that mode by a staff of monitors or an individual master, but a question of conveni- . ence and efficacy in imparting its self- educating means. The explaining of words and better plans of teaching are but organic improvements in the art of applying these means. Even the religious and secular question refers but to the administrative department, while its propagation by national enactment or voluntary efforts, is a question of political and social economy.

All these adventitious circumstances, therefore, however individually important, are but of secondary moment to a consideration of the great first principles from which they all emanate, and of which they form but a physical apparatus or frame-work. This apparatus, too, must ever vary by circumstances; and however valuable the discoveries made for the better working of its machinery, it should be borne in mind that the whole is but a conventional arrangement, and much of it liable to be superseded or remodelled according as clearer views are developed regarding the fundamental laws of education itself, which are above all change, and eternal. But certain systems and modes of administering these essential laws have been generally

PREFACE. VII

assumed as first principles, and whatever improvements have been effected from such data have rather tended outwards from the subject than inwards towards it. The improvements introduced under the Bell and Lancasterian 'systems are of this nature. These were at first merely organic changes in the external management of a school, with perhaps better modes of teaching what was taught before. But that which was taught before constituted only a small part of education, and hence little improvement in it was thus effected. Nor, for the same reason, -was the adoption of the explanatory and intellectual mode much of an essential improvement. While monitorism arranged and methodized its previous materials, the intellectual system improved upon the materials themselves. But neither a better arrangement nor improvement of these instruments was much advance towards a knowledge and practice of their application, or the work to be done by them, much less of that greater and more important part of the work not even subject to their influence. And the reason is, that erroneous systems of belief regarding the nature of that work no less generally prevailed than an ignorance of its practice.

This tendency in the universal mind to deposit, as it

were, certain systems of belief and practice, which the

lapse of time equally consolidates, whether erroneous or

otherwise, is not therefore always beneficial to the cause

iof truth, but more frequently the reverse. How often,

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and bow long have the correct principles of science been retarded, in having bad thus to struggle up from nature through the superincumbent framework of a popular but erroneous system of contrary opinions ! The minds of the majority of mankind, trained up beneath such a canopy of ideas, passively receive the stereotyped impression ; while it is only the rare occurrence of some less plastic but more original mind refusing to be thus moulded, that imbibes its convictions of truth from more natural sources. Of this "love of system" as a source of error, specified by Lord Bacon under the allegorical phrase, "The Idol of the Tribe," the Aristotelian philosophy is an instance — though indeed the system of doctrines that became popular under that name was very different from those contained in the genuine writings of the Stagirite. That system was taught in the schools for ages, and a blind submission to its dogmas exacted from pupils. In some universities it was considered scarcely inferior to the Scriptures. It was supported by statutes requiring teachers upon oath to follow no other guide than that of Aristotle, and it was considered a bold innovation when to that philosophy were merely added the writings of Plato, Pythagoras, and the Stoics. Yet the monks and Jesuits, who so loudly denounced that " heresy," as threatening a revolution in the science of mind, might have saved their alarms, had they known that no extension of the same system of reasoning would ever develop sounder views of mental

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philosophy. It was but adding to a building whose foundation was unsound, and which indeed, in another way than they feared, accelerated the ruin of the entire structure. But the temple of truth arose upon a different foundation, laid deep in nature, and was gradually reared to perfection by materials derived from the same source. Kejecting the logomachies and sophistries of the schoolmen, a return was made to the natural workings of the mind itself in its examination of nature, and the principles of a system of inductive reasoning drawn from thence, that have revolutionized or modified all former systems, not only of mental but material philosophy.

In a similar way the theories and fallacious systems of ancient astronomy long retarded an advance of the true principles of that science. Its former data were mostly conjectures, from which facts were attempted to be drawn ; and though many facts harmonized with such data, it did not therefore follow that these were correct as general principles of astronomy. It was building downwards from heaven to earth by an artificial prop-work, instead of upwards from earth to heaven upon a natural foundation and scaffolding. Yet the consolidating hand of time gave a consistency to these loose principles, which held sway over the human mind for long ages; and as the glimmering of a taper serves but to render the surrounding darkness of night the more intense, the dawning light of a Copernicus only revealed the universality and

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magnitude of the errors that had been perpetuated under the Ptolemaic system. In addition to his own early belief, however, Copernicus was also a close observer of nature; and finding discrepancies between the two, happily yielded to the evidence of sense, and drew his own conclusions from the latter. From the simple phenomenon, that must have been familiar to every one, namely, the optical illusion that takes place to a spectator in a boat moving along the banks of a river, the objects on which seem to move past, he drew the sublime induction, that a similar illusion happens with respect to the heavenly bodies, and thus laid the basis of an entirely different system. But aware of the danger of its coming into competition with the former belief, he neither announced his rejection of the one, nor discovery of the other, till near the close of his life, fifty years afterwards. And another half century elapsed before, by the exertions of Galileo, " it was kindled into so bright a flame as to consume the philosophy of Aristotle, to alarm the hierarchy of Rome, and to threaten the existence of every opinion not founded on experience and observation."*

To this "love of system" may also be added the danger that threatened for a time the discovery of the great law of planetary gravitation, inductively though each step of the process was gone through ; and had the investigation

* Playfair.

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been conducted by a mind less original than that of the immortal discoverer, it must have failed, on coming into collision with formerly received opinions. He traced the power of attraction as being not sensibly diminished from the top of a tree, a building, a mountain, and thence inferred its action upon the moon and planets, and by a laborious mathematical calculation found the law of its ratio. But this truth being incompatible with the system that prevailed regarding the concentric circles of the planetary orbits, he was on the point of abandoning it as hypothetical and fallacious! Happily, however, by a collateral discovery, he found that system itself to be erroneous, and his law to be the origin of a new system, destined to overthrow the " vortices" of the Cartesian philosophy, and to establish its truths upon an investigation into the laws of matter and motion as exemplified by nature herself.

No apology is deemed necessary for adducing such instances as illustrative of the subject of education — for no less has that science suffered through ancient prejudice and conventional system, than the sciences of astronomy and logic. Milton was perhaps the first who suggested a few original ideas on the subject, and pointed out . a more rational course than the systems of his day exhibited. Locke followed in exposing the pedantries of what constituted the education of his time. Rousseau and other theorists went still farther. But it

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was reserved for a mind intellectually inferior to any of these to strike out the only path that can conduct to a right knowledge and practice of the art of mental training. Henry Pestalozzi may in one sense, therefore, be well compared to Bacon, Copernicus, or Newton, in having literally founded a new ' school' of education, and that upon the same natural principles of observation and induction which they pursued. By this plan the minds of children are brought into immediate contact with the objects of nature, instead of looking at them through the obscurities of language and the mysticism of books, in the same way that those philosophers arrived at truth by natural experiment, instead of groping after it among the speculative systems of their predecessors. Time, therefore, is all that is wanted to carry into effect and consolidate these Pestalozzian principles into an organized system, to supersede all former plans and methods not equally founded in nature.

As an instance of the difficulty of such a task, however, what seems a more hopeless undertaking than any attempt to re-model the present system of classical study, pursued at the endowed universities and grammar schools, or even to depress that study to a secondary pursuit ? Yet most people now admit that the mere study of dead languages ought not to consume so many of the precious years of boyhood and youth. But until lately the same error extended down through the whole apparatus of

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modern education, and " word-mongering and rote systems" constituted its principal elements.

The following work is an humble effort to review the entire question in the light of nature and Scripture, — that is, to regard the subject of education as unfettered by system and prejudice, and from the manifestations of nature in a human being, to deduce its essential laws, — to show, not only the analogy of nature in training the inferior creation, but the necessity for building upon that principle as a foundation, and proceeding in a uniform line upwards through the very highest departments of intellect and morals. Man is not only a rational, but an instinctive animal; the latter part of his nature should therefore, be regulated rather than restrained by reason. So far as its legitimate influence extends, its promptings should be attended to by reason, which should assume the reins only when it has dropped them. How many of man's best instincts are lost or dwarfed in their development by having their legitimate operations performed by some artifice of reason, or "by that ultra- civilization which strangles the natural feelings !" The promptings of conduct are then not from within, but from without; but it is the inward desires and inclinations that must be attended to, and. gratified by reason, up to that point where instinct fails to supply them — when reason must then not only regulate and gratify, but educe the higher and more spiritual aspirations.

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The Norma of education must, therefore, be drawn, not only from, hut by, nature ; else, like the addition of the Academic philosophy, to that of the Peripatetics, in monkish times, the institution of normal seminaries upon any other basis, will form but an excrescence upon existing systems, rather than any new system.

Chapter I

Subject introduced as a science — Danger of being mixed up with other questions — Analogy — Its universal and conventional application — Not adapted to most of the present arrangements of society — Its good and evil effects — Agency in improving humanity — Abstract subserviency to religion — Union of schools to churches not a union of education to religion — Intrinsic difference — Parallel drawn — Different influences necessary — Preparatory to religion — Definition — Union of the two only in Christian action — Its social importance — Obstacles to its diffusion — Supremacy of intellectual selfishness — Moral benefits a collateral, not intentional effect of most actions — Polish freedom — Patriotism — Charity — Missionary endeavours — Fancy bazaars — Charity balls — Necessity of educating motives of conduct — Evolution of goodness out of all events.

Chapter II

Rise and progress of education — Parallel to language — Opinions concerning the latter — Capacities of inferior animals — Artificial education a result of language — Its absence in brutes — Resemblance between the latter and man — In mind — In feeling — Disconnexion between them — Artificial training the source of man's superiority — Egypt — Its hieroglyphics — Analogous to infant education — From concrete to abstract — Expansion of the universal mind by letters — Language worship — Source of mythology — Of superstition — Contrast between the speculative and practical sciences of Egypt — Egyptian errors diffused into other lands — Carthage — Development of her commercial character — Language from Phenicia — Origin of metaphors — Of genii — Baneful effects

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of an overtrained commercial spirit among the Carthaginians — Their character by Cicero — By Livy — Their fanaticism and cruelty — Instance by Diodorus — Influence of religious fear in deforming the social character 20

Chapter III

Greece — Native characteristics and foreign education — Patriotism the ultimate good — Spartan education — Its misdirected energies and hardships — Effects upon the maternal feelings — State cruelty to boys — In the marriage of girls — Athens — Supremacy of intellect over animalism — Effects of natural scenery — Gymnasia — Music — Custom of Pythagoreans — Effects upon the Arcadians — Philosophers and warriors practised it — Capacity of Greeks for perfecting every art and science — Their originality of genius — Metaphysics and ethics — Socrates — Similarity of his doctrines to the Gospel — First example of training in him — Incapacity of Greece to sustain her position — Her downfall — Rome — Its infant character — Military training — Similar to Spartan education — Inaptitude for mental accomplishment — First desire of literature from the Achaians — Discouraged by Cato the censor — Unlike Greece, the animal principle predominant — Selfishness the ruling motive — Perfection of the physical principle — Its reaction and consequences 40

Chapter IV

Parallel between individual and universal education — Necessity of a borrowed light to guide the moral powers — having no natural desire for their own higher gratification — Heathen philosophy benevolent rather than beneficent — The scriptural principle — Effects counter-worked from a want of training — Religion made an engine of worldly power — The crusades — Summary, proving moral training the chief element wanting in all previous systems — The whole man never educated — Necessity of education being made a scientific art — Analogy of a surgeon — Normal instruction a modern phenomenon — Acquired only by practice 61

Chapter V

Nature of the art — Analogy of painting — Training more than teaching — Nature of the latter — Analogies — Difference between a trained and untrained master — Character of a moral trainer — Moral

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nature depending upon physical, more than mental qualities — Gratitude a natural result of physical gratification — Knowledge of physics necessary to moral culture — Analogy — Morals affected by the manner and antecedent feelings of the gratifier — Whole conduct governed by feelings — The mother in the place of God — Love to her forms the character — Necessity of a nurse schooling her own temper— Superiority of a mother — Difference in temper of children — The " stubborn" child often an original character— Eradicative influence of school 73

Chapter VI

Origin of reform in education — Sunday schools — Bell and Lancaster — Infant schools — Pastor Oberlin — Oral and object instruction by Pestalozzi — Want of applying its known principles — Normal schools necessary for rich as well as poor — Analogy of photogenic drawing — Mental impressions affected by the medium through which they pass — Danger of injury from an ignorant mode — Difficulty of picturing out ideas — A concrete — A precocious intellect — Imitation — Necessity of art to guide the conduct naturally — Analogies — Normal school a moral daguerreotype — No provision made for training tutors to the rich, and for grammar schools, &c. — Tutor for the Prince of Wales — Extraneous qualifications — Choice of governesses — Mental training most needed in female education — Sound judgment conducive to a just fancy — Affection increased from same cause — False position between governesses and parents — Female training seminaries 96

Chapter VII

Normal schools a modern desideratum — Influence of custom in retarding improvement — Time necessary — Analogies of special training — A physician — A clergyman — A lawyer — A barrister — Physical training necessary to form a technical habit — Analogies — Preceptor for the rich not chosen from a professional fitness — Subserviency of education to divinity and medicine 120

Chapter VIII

Principles of Glasgow Normal Seminary — Simultaneous instruction — Sympathy of numbers — Monitorism — Mixed plan — Explanatory system — Division of the subject into science, art, and method — Improved methods under the auspices of Mr. Kay Shuttleworth. 131

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Chapter IX

Analysis of method in Reading — Words an index to previous knowledge — Phonic method — Synthetic — No connexion between names and sounds of letters — Act of memory learning by names of letters — Useless drudgery of " learning to spell" — Instrumentary nature of reading and speaking — Education of the senses — Ideas before names — Danger of mere verbal knowledge — Books a small item of school apparatus — Articulation — Tone and emphasis — Mode of acquiring the habit of correct articulation — Accent and emphasis essentially the same — Etymology — Agglutinating process of spoken language — Mode of analysing and combining a word — Grammar — Incidentally : — Division -into notional and relational words — Their modifications and qualities— Doubt as to theory preceding practice — Imitation — General remarks 141

' CHAPTER X.

Method of -Number — Sensible ideas before reflective' — Visible arithmetic before abstract — The arithmeticon^-Roman Abacus — Latter why more used by Romans than Greeks — Size and distance of objects — Named from. pacts of body — Mental arithmetic — Slate arithmetic — Formation -of Roman numerals — Science based in reason — Method of Writing*— Observation — Education of the eye and hand — Their mutual dependence — Analysis and synthesis of written characters — ^Scientific rules by Mulhauser 166

Chapter XI

Method of Geography — Inductive mode of teaching it — Natural observation — Artificial means, maps, &c. — Extract from report of Training School at Battersea — Method of History — Errors of popular mode — Prejudicial effects — Resemblance to biography — No proper books — Nature of inductive teaching in biography, an example for the same in history — End of analysis of method .... 180

Chapter XII

Nature of the subject to be educated — Analogy of sculpture — Natural condition of man — Science of mind based on physiology — Still obscure — His active and passive nature — Self-training — Parental influence — Guidance of faculties — Physical Training — Extract

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from Chambers — Mental effects from impaired bodily organs — From external and internal causes — Moral effects — Selfishness from ungratified wants — Incapacity of the instrument — View of the bodily organs — Volition the main-spring of the machine — Negative view of the case — Same imperfection from want of training as derangement of the parts — Bodily suffering entailed — Elements of health — Food — Air — Cleanliness — Exercise — Action a design of the human frame — Instances — Nervous system — Courage — Best kind of exercises — Extract from Prize Essay — Action of the brain — Precocity — Prejudices on the subject — Combination of study with amusement 193

Chapter XIII

Intellectual Education — Power of will over the mind — Itself controlled — Modern division of mental science — Perception and reflection— Similar division of education — Observing faculties — Faculty of language — Lessons on objects — Analogy of camera obscura — Pestalozzian principle reduced to art — Higher course by pictures — Miss Mayo V work — Powers of reason — Method in best seminaries — Elliptical mode — Examples of analysis and synthesis — Similarity of effects in mental and bodily exercises — Summary and recapitulation 222

Chapter XIV

Moral Education — Analogy from geology — Nature and superiority of the moral principle — Ought to govern the intellect — Incipient manifestation in the present age — Want of means for moral training, strictly so called — Sunday and ragged schools on a wrong basis — Sympathy of numbers — Advantages of public over private education — Moral action — Bible training — Development and guidance of the feeling of gratitude — Obedience naturally gained by affection — Made instrumental in forming habits — Nature and cultivation of veracity — Anger — Justice — Benevolence — Formation of habits the sum of moral training — Law of kindness pervading inferior nature — Social rank of the educator .... 249

Chapter XV

Corporal Punishments in schools — Substituted by a moral influence upon the conscience — Illustrations — Loud talking in school

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— Scolding — Revenge — Vice its own punishment — Acts repressed, not habits formed — Memory Lessons — Latin and Greek — Inattention — Fighting — Falsehood — Influence of fear — Remedies — ; Scriptural warrant considered 251