dispositions of children. "We must grant that there will be children found of all tempers, some are confident, others modest, tractable, or obstinate, curious or careless, quick or slow. There are not more differences in men's faces, and the outward lineaments of their bodies, than there are in the makes and tempers of their minds. The peculiar physiognomy of the mind is most discernible in children, and its natural make and prevailing inclinations are to be considered. We must not hope wholly to change their original tempers without spoiling them.... God has stamped certain characters upon men's minds, which, like their shapes, may perhaps be a little mended; but can hardly be totally altered and transformed into the contrary. But of this be sure, after all is done, the bias will always hang on that side that nature first placed it." Locke does not think of virtue, wisdom and breeding as artificial elements inculcated into the mind of the young. These parts and dispositions are in the mind as innate powers, to be developed by exercise. Here Locke differs from Comenius, who declared, "Now it is certain that there is nothing in the understanding that was not first in the senses. Consequently, children need examples and things which they can see. Our effort should be to correctly represent objects to the senses."1) Comenius encamps with Bacon, Locke with the Greeks, yet there is no moral difference between Locke and Comenius, as both aim at producing the virtuous man. The root difference is, that while Comenius is inclined to make virtue an addition by education, Locke, like Pestalozzi, finds the seeds of virtue in the soul, and would arrange the conditions under which they are to unfold, and to reach their end. 2) There is no conflict between these two views. Locke is dogmatic, neither in his claims for education nor for nature. He is simply recognizing the true places of the two great powers which operate in the formation of character; natural parts and disposition, on the one hand, and education, in 1) Compayré Hist. of Ped. p. 133. Eng. Trans. its broadest sense, on the other. There are these two points of view, and both are to be recognised. If we examine Locke carefully on the natural differences of men we shall find them to be relatively unimportant by nature, and that education, used in its broadest sense, explains most of the variations. In this he agrees with Descartes. But Locke has no such faith in education or method as that expressed by Leibniz. Locke centers his faith in education primarily in this; man is endowed with a power of acting according to the dictates of right reason, and a correct system of education will have as an end the preservation, development, and enthronement of this power in man, through precept and practise. The result of Locke's thought upon this question of relative values is well expressed in the following. "Among men of equal education there is a great inequality of parts, and the woods of America as well as the schools of Athens produce men of several abilities in the same kind. Though this be so, yet I imagine most men come very short of what they might attain unto in their several degrees, by a neglect of their understandings.... The difference so observable in men's understandings and parts does not arise so much from the natural faculties as acquired habits. Nature gives us but the seeds, education must do the rest.”1) Precepts and Instruction. It would be irrelevant to the work in hand to enter upon an analysis of Locke's scheme of instruction, or to catalogue the subject-matter of teaching. So much as immediately concerns our subject has been given. (II. 5.) The scheme of virtue which Locke presents in his five rules is faithfully adhered to and enforced in his educational system. All children are to learn by heart the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Catechism. After this, the remaining moral rules of the Bible may be learned. (Ed. § 159.) "The gentleman's proper calling, is, the service of his country, and so is most properly concerned in moral and political knowledge; and thus the 1) Conduct of the Understanding. Secs. II. IV. VI. studies which more immediately belong to his calling are those which treat of virtues and vices, of civil society and the arts of government, and will take in also law and history." (Works IV. 600.) We may notice here what has often been regarded as a serious defect in Locke's system of education. We refer to the meagre value which Locke placed upon poetry and music. Mr. St. John complains that Locke "knows nothing of that visionary sweetness which descends like dew through the periods of Plato, and literally ravishes the imagination".) The poetic vein is to be suppressed. "It is very seldom seen that any one discovers mines of gold or silver in Parnassus. It is a pleasant air, but a barren soil." (Ed. § 174.) Of music, Locke says "“It wastes so much of a young man's time to gain but a moderate skill in it, and engages often in such odd company, that amongst all those things that ever came into the list of accomplishments I think I may give it the last place". (Ed. § 197.) Fénélon condemned music because it "furnishes diversions that are poisonous". While we recognzie that Locke's ethics, like his system of education, upon which he depended largely for practical support, does not give a leading place to the emotions, we believe that the chilliness of his system has been overrated. It is to be remembered that in his doctrine of virtue the law of love is the vital principle, and that while Locke develops this law through the intellectual nature of man, the rational sphere of sentiment is preserved, while sentimentalism is rigidly excluded. We may also notice that although Shakespeare and Milton belong to the century of Locke, this century was not the century of Shakespeare and Milton. It was an age of petty rhymers, of political satires and lampoons; an age in which Dryden, Cowley, Waller and Butler were the most conspicuous of their class. Nor was music in a better condition in this period. Poetry and music occupy a very different position in England to-day than in the seventheenth century. 1) Locke's Philosophical Works Edited by St. John. Vol. I. p. 19. It is not to be overlooked that in the paragraph which counsels death to the poetic vein, Locke recommends reading "the excellent Greek and Roman poets". In his "Thoughts concerning Reading and Study" he takes the same ground with Plato, Aristotle and Quintilian, commending the reading of poetical writings, especially dramatic, if they be free from profanity, obscenity, and what corrupts good manners. (Works IV. 604.) Use and Practise. These are fundamental terms in practical education. Through them we come to habit, the stronghold of the moral life of man. The use which Locke makes of habit is to establish the subjective principle of all virtue. What is this principle? Locke replies, "The great principle and foundation of all virtue and worth is placed in this: That a man is able to deny himself his own desires, cross his own inclinations, and purely follow what reason directs, as best, though the appetite lean the other way." (Ed. 333. 338.) This, as we have seen, is to be gained in part by a development of the intellectual nature. But here Locke brings in a new power, the power of habit, which is to assist to the same end. "Habits work more constantly, and with greater facility than reason, which when we have most need of it, is seldom fairly consulted, and more rarely obeyed." (Ed. 110.) Habits, then, are prescribed by the rational mind in self defence; a result of the knowledge which a man has of himself; a device for the preservation of liberty and happiness. The principles of virtue are to be made habits woven into the very principles of one's nature. (Ed. 142.) These principles of conduct which are to be made habits by exercise, extend to the whole man, and include all that is necessary to insure his true happiness and freedom in life. "We are born with faculties and powers capable of almost anything, such at least as would carry us farther than can be easily imagined, but it is only the exercise of these powers that gives us ability and skill in anything, and leads us towards perfection. Witness the legs of a dancing master, the fingers of a musi cian, the astonishing actions of rope dancers and tumblers. As with the body, so with the mind, practise makes it what it is. It is practise alone that brings the powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their perfection." (C. U. IV.) True education consists in repressing the evil, and stimulating the virtuous tendencies of the child's nature. The latter are to be drawn out into the principles of virtue, and by exercise fixed into habits of thought and conduct. How is all this to be accomplished? We must keep children to the practise of those principles which are to become habits, by kind words and gentle admonitions, rather than by harsh rebukes and chidings. Care must also be taken not to endeavor to settle too many habits at once, and so perfect none (Ed. 66.) But it is to example and authority that Locke looks for the wise direction of education. Of all the ways whereby children are to be instructed and their manners formed, the easiest and most efficacious is example. Nothing sinks so gently and so deep into men's minds. Children are good observers, and fair reasoners. They are never to be given deceitful and eluding answers. They easily perceive when they are slighted or deceived, and quickly learn the trick of neglect, dissimulation, and falsehood. Truth should never be encroached upon. "They are travellers newly arrived in a strange country, of which they know nothing; we should therefore make conscience not to mislead them. ... This is not alone for children, but is to be made use of so long as the child is under tuition. Character, and common sense are the first requisites in a teacher. Encourage curiosity and enquiry. ... Curiosity in children is but an appetite after knowledge, the great instrument nature has provided to remove that ignorance which they were born with."1) Character furnishes a basis of authority. In its last analysis character is true authority, for it alone gives rise to reverence in the minds of children. The two elements of reverence are love and fear, "the great principles whereby one may always have hold upon the child to turn his mind 1) Education. §§ 82. 118. 120. 131. 152. 122. |