child submits and dissembles obedience, whilst the fear of the rod hangs over him; but when that is removed, and, by being out of sight, he can promise himself impunity, he gives the greater scope to his natural inclination which, by this way, is not at all altered; but, on the contrary, heightened and increased in him, and, after such restraints, breaks out usually with the more violence." Another celebrated philosopher observes, "I condemn all violence in the education of a young mind brought up for honour and liberty. There is I know not what of servility in rigour and constraint; and I maintain that what cannot be effected by reason, prudence, and skill, will never be effected by force. I never saw the rod produce any other effect but to render the soul more cowardly and maliciously obstinate."+

Corporal punishment is nearly as degrading to him who inflicts, as it is to him who receives it. No gentleman would wish to be a flogger. In the English army, in which the flogging system holds its disgusting sway, and levels British subjects to the brutal condition of Cossacks or Negro slaves, no officer would ever think of claiming for himself the functions of the executioner. Let the teacher recollect that he, too, is a gentleman; let him respect himself if he wishes to be respected; let him also treat his pupils as gentlemen, and they will, in most cases, behave as such.

What has tended more than anything to throw ridicule on the teacher and lower his character in public estimation, is the ludicrous association of the whipping-rod and ferula with his office. The severity which parents formerly exercised over their children, justified a corresponding severity on the part of schoolmasters; and these instruments of torture became the indispensable appendage of their functions. So general was the barbarous practice of beating children, even to a late period, that most men of the present generation cannot think of their school-days without a feeling of ill-will and disrespect towards their old teachers.

It is consistent with despotic governments that the ferula of school tyrants should prepare children for the iron rod of their future political tyrants; but, in constitutional countries where every individual enjoys the noble privilege of a free man, the child must not be early taught that brute force is a principle of government; he must not acquire notions and habits incom+ Montaigne, Essais, Liv. ii. c. 3.

Thoughts on Education.

patible with the dignity and duty of a freeman. Let, then, corporal punishment be banished from public instruction in Great Britain and Ireland, as it is in France. He who cannot conduct a school without the rod is unworthy of presiding over the education of youth.

The work of education will be successfully carried on without resorting to disgraceful blows, if the master know how to excite in his pupils a taste for order and study; if he render instruction interesting by his manner of imparting it; if he enforce discipline by firmness and justice; if, finally, he inspire love and respect by an affectionate and dignified deportment in all his dealings with them. But if, on the contrary, the master be hated, his teaching will be despised, his advice received with suspicion, his remonstrances and punishments will have no effect.

SECT. II.-PREPARATORY STUDIES OF THE TEACHER.

The teacher who is fully impressed with the high responsibility attached to his profession, who does not wish to make dangerous experiments on the first young minds which are confided to his care, will prepare for the difficult office of educating, by mental as well as by moral discipline. As the authority of his words derives its weight from the soundness of his understanding and the depth of his learning, he should not neglect any opportunity to improve and enrich his mind: there is no time at which he should cease to learn. He should particularly direct his attention towards perfecting himself in the department of knowledge which is more immediately the object of his teaching, without, however, neglecting general useful information. An instructor can always find the opportunity to turn to account every thing with which he is acquainted. In fact, he cannot properly fulfil his task, no matter how limited his sphere of action, if he does not know more than he professes to teach.

An instructor should possess great powers of language; for he must be able, not only to convey in the clearest and most forcible way the information he wishes to impart to his pupils, but also to encourage and admonish those who do not bring from home natural dispositions to learning :-just praise and reproof, dealt out in appropriate and impressive words, are more effective than corporal punishment. He must be able to adapt his language to their different ages and capacities, to explain the reasons of

the exercises he imposes on them, and to unfold to them all the advantages which may accrue from the particular information at which they aim, or from the particular tasks which they are desired to perform, thereby supplying them with powerful motives of study. In public instruction there are few qualifications more necessary than the power of extemporaneous delivery. This happy talent brings the mind of the professor into closer contact with that of his pupils, than the reading of written lectures; it enables him to repeat what has not been fully understood, to introduce illustrations as they are required, and to diversify his manner or language according to the impression made on his young auditory as perceived in their countenances. But extemporaneous lectures, to be really useful, must be founded upon a practical knowledge of the dispositions and advancement of the students; and there is no better means by which this knowledge may be acquired than by an intercourse with them in the way of examination and conversation. The delivering of lectures to a class would not be sufficient to create intellectual habits in learners, if unaccompanied by examinations. Skill in conducting these is, therefore, essentially necessary to qualify the professor for the successful discharge of his public duty. A person teaching his native tongue abroad, should know critically that of his pupils, as well as his own; for he must be able, when a difficulty occurs in a foreign author, to render readily, accurately, and perspicuously the original thought, both to make it clear to his pupils, and to set them the example of correct and elegant expression`; he must also have it in his power to correct the many errors which young persons are liable to commit, when translating from a foreign idiom either orally or in writing, and thus to assist them in making that language instrumental to improvement in their own. He should be a thorough grammarian and philologist, so as to be able to adduce rules in support of his correction, and to explain the mechanism, formation, and derivation of language.

Linear drawing, which supplies the deficiencies of descriptive language, is another acquirement indispensable to the instructor. It may be made a most useful instrument of teaching, even in the humblest school. In the exact, the natural, and the experimental sciences, especially, he who has a command of this art is never at a loss how to render the most intricate details clear, intelligible, and interesting to his auditory. One of the great difficulties which are met with in understanding a lecture on

science, arises often from the false notions to which incorrect diagrams lead. To the professor of languages linear drawing would prove equally useful, as it would enable him readily to present to his pupils just notions of many objects, the foreign names of which have either no corresponding terms in their own language, or are translated by words not familiar to them, and consequently conveying to them no clear idea of what is meant. Skill in drawing is a powerful auxiliary in oral instruction; for visible illustrations, by bringing the perceptive powers in aid of the intellect, fix the attention of the hearers more intensely, and disclose the thought of the lecturer more forcibly, than could be done by the most minute verbal details. The celebrated Cuvier used, in his lectures, to resort to the chalk and the black board, whenever he perceived that he was not fully understood by his numerous auditory; and their approbation generally testified the success of his illustrations. Sir Charles Bell offers another striking example of the importance of drawing to a scientific teacher; for his admirable lectures would have lost half their effect, had he not constantly illustrated his ideas by means of his skill as a draughtsman.

and

Not only should the educator's acquirements, capacity, moral character be of a high order, but he should aim at professional skill; he should understand thoroughly the art of instructing, of educating the young. The possession of a good education, or of much information, does not necessarily imply the power of transmitting either: a man may be an accomplished scholar or an adept in science, and, yet, be an indifferent teacher. To stoop from the pride of superior attainment; to conceive even the embarrassments that entangle the beginner; to become identified with the feelings and faculties of children; to anticipate and remove the obstacles in their way to knowledge; to curb and regulate their tempers, and, what is still more difficult, one's own; to awaken and sustain attention, and know when to stop, so as to avoid fatigue; to lead by easy steps, through a path which to them is a rugged one, and strewing it with flowers instead of thorns; to slacken one's own steps, in order to keep pace with the pupil, instead of expecting or insisting on gigantic strides; all this is the result of long and careful training; it demands a rare assemblage of qualities, and can be effected only by a person of superior abilities.*

The educator should make himself perfect master of physi

* See James Pillan's Principles of Elementary Teaching.

ology, moral science, and mental philosophy; the instructor, especially, should study mental philosophy, which contains the fundamental principles of the art of teaching. Education is, in fact, the most useful part of the science of the mind. It may be considered as a science in itself: it has its fixed laws, and the principles on which it is founded are drawn, by inductive reasoning, from the physical and intellectual organisation of man, as also from his social condition; it demands, in order to be well understood and properly applied, the deepest thought and the most patient investigation. Now, if this be so, we would ask how a man could know this science any more than that of mathematics or astronomy, without having studied it, or having even thought about it? If there be any such art as the art of teaching, we ask how it comes to pass that a man is considered fully qualified to exercise it without a day's study, when a similar attempt in any other art would expose him to ridicule. The profession on which all other professions depend demands a more severe apprenticeship than any, because it is the most important in its effects, the most comprehensive in its objects, and the most intricate in its details. It must be acquired in normal schools, or by practising under eminent professors, and by studying the most important works which have been written and are daily published on the subject of education.

Normal schools, however, conducted as they usually are in England and France, do not sufficiently take into consideration the primary wants of the pupils. M. Salvandy, minister of public instruction under Louis Philippe, has proposed a reform. in this department, which is much needed. In adverting to the subject he says, "Our pedagogical institutions have been calculated to add instruction to instruction; but the science of teaching and, especially, the science of education, are taught nowhere. Our special schools make grammarians, Latin and Greek scholars, mathematicians, and philosophers; nothing shows that they prepare their pupils to be professors and educators." They, in truth, forward them in every department of knowledge, except the one which is the most useful to them, namely, knowledge of the human constitution, physical, moral, and intellectual. They are completely silent on the science of education and on the art of teaching. The characteristic feature of the instruction of such establishments ought to be the predominance of pedagogical subjects, consisting chiefly in lectures on the history of

Rapport au Roi, Dec. 6, 1845.