by Basedow: "You should attend to nature in your children far more than to art. The elegant manners and usages of the world are, for the most part, contrary to nature. These come of themselves in later years. Treat children like children, that they may remain the longer uncorrupted. A boy, whose acutest faculties are his senses, and who has no perception of anything abstract, must first of all be made acquainted with the world as it presents itself to the senses.

Let this be shown him in Nature itself, or, where this is impossible, in faithful drawings and models. He can thus, even in play, learn how the various objects are named. Comenius alone has pointed out the right road in this matter. By all means reduce the wretched exercises of the ́: memory."

Basedow, as the founder of the Philanthropin, is worthy of some consideration. He was born at Hamburg, in 1723. His youth was somewhat irregular. He studied theology at Leipsic, but his skeptical views prevented his ordination to the ministry. He turned to teaching. Having advocated educational reform in a work published in 1771, from which the extract above is taken, he was received under the patronage of the Prince of Dessau, and placed in charge of a school in which he was to exemplify his theories. His purpose is announced in the following appeal made in 1776, two years after the founding of the Philanthropin. "Send your children," he says, "to a happy youthful life in successful studies. This affair is not Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed, but Christian. . . . We are philanthropists, or cosmopolites. The sovereignty of Russia or Denmark is not, in our teaching and judgment, placed

after the freedom of Switzerland. . . . The end of edu cation must be to form the European, whose life may be as harmless, useful, and contented as education can make it. It must, therefore, be provided (1) that little vexation, pain, and disease await him, and (2) that he accustom himself to the careful enjoyment of the good. The art of all arts is virtue and contentment. But few exercises for the virtues, as they should be employed in education, have yet been invented. Hear, ye wise and philanthropic authors! A plan for the methodical exercise of the virtues in families and schools is one of the few weighty books to benefit all mankind. If we were rich, we would offer a prize of ten thousand dollars for the best book of this kind appearing within two years.

"For the paternal religion of each pupil, the clergy of the place will provide; but natural religion and morality is the chief part of philosophy, which we will see to ourselves. In the Philanthropin faith in God as the Creator, Preserver, and Lord of the universe is first inculcated. . . Little memorizing is done with us. The pupils are not forced to study, not even by reproof. Yet we promise, by the excellence of our method and its agreement with the philanthropinistic education and mode of life, to make double the progress in study that is common in schools and gymnasia. And especially do we promise much culture of sound reason through the use of a truly philosophical mode of thinking."

The following extract, taken from an account of a visit to the Philanthropin, will give us some idea of the novelty and freedom of the methods pursued. The pupils were plainly dressed; their hair was cut short; their

*

throats were quite open, the shirt-collar falling back over the coat. "The little ones," says the writer of the account in question, "have gone through the oddest performances. They play at 'word-of-command.' Eight: or ten stand in a line like soldiers, and Herr Wolke is officer. He gives the word in Latin, and they must do whatsoever he says. For instance, when he says, ' Claudite oculos,' they all shut their eyes; when he says, 'Circumspicite,' they look about them; Imitamini sartorem,' they all sew like tailors; Imitamini sutorem,' they draw the waxed thread like the cobblers. Herr Wolke gives a thousand different commands in the drollest fashion.

"Another game, 'the hiding-game,' I will teach you. Some one writes a name and hides it from the children -the name of some part of the body, or of a plant, or animal, or metal-and the children guess what it is. Whoever guesses right gets an apple or a piece of cake. One of the visitors wrote intestina, and told the children it was a part of the body. Then the guessing began. One guessed caput, another nasus, another os, another manus, pes, digiti, pectus, and so forth, for a long time; but one of them hit it at last. Next Herr Wolke wrote the name of a beast, a quadruped. Then came the guesses--leo, ursus, camelus, elephas, and so on, till one guessed right; it was mus. Then a town was written, and they guessed Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, London, till a child won with St. Petersburg.

"They had another game, which was this: Herr Wolke gave the command in Latin, and they imitated the noises of different animais, and made us laugh till

*One of Basedow's assistants.

we were tired. They roared like lions, crowed like cocks, mewed like cats, just as they were bid."

The Philanthropin acquired a wide reputation, and it was visited by persons interested in education from various parts of Europe. The impression generally made was favorable, yet the results somehow did not answer to Basedow's confident manifesto. It seems that he himself was poorly adapted to carry on such an institution. His methods, well suited to young children, were prolonged into the period when more advanced and more systematic work should have been done. His teaching did not keep pace with the development of his pupils, and hence failed to fulfill the promise it had made in the beginning. The Philanthropin, which had naturally many opponents, was closed before the end of the century, yet not without leaving several similar institutions to survive it, through which it continued to exert a salutary influence upon education.

Kant, who had at first predicted great results from the Philanthropin, was sadly disappointed; and in his "Pädagogik" he refers to it in an interesting passage. "One fancies indeed," he says, "that experiments in education would not be necessary, and that we might judge by the understanding whether any plan would turn out well or ill. But this is a great mistake. Experience shows that often in our experiments we get quite opposite results from what we had anticipated. We see, too, that, since experiments are necessary, it is not in the power of one generation to form a complete plan of education. The only experimental school which, to some extent, made a beginning in clearing the road was the Institute at Dessau. This praise at least must

be allowed it, notwithstanding the many faults which could be brought up against it—faults which are sure to show themselves when we come to the results of our experiments, and which merely prove that fresh experiments are necessary. It was the only school in which the teachers had liberty to work according to their own methods and schemes, and where they were in free communication both among themselves and with all learned men throughout Germany."

(c.) THE HUMANISTS.

It is now time to consider the humanistic movement of the eighteenth century, which made the study of classical antiquity the basis of all culture. It was a reaction in part against the ecclesiasticism which fostered the ancient languages only for the sake of theology, and in part against the realistic school represented by Comenius, Rousseau, and especially the philanthropinists.

The distinguishing characteristic of the humanists is the prominence which they give to Latin and Greek. These languages are made the basis of education; and the attempt is made to justify this prominence by their value as a means of culture, and also as studies of practical utility. It is maintained that the study of the ancient languages is unequaled in disciplinary worth, and that the literatures of Greece and Rome contain incomparable models of style. Hence, the study of Latin and Greek gives strength to the faculties and cultivation to the taste. It is further claimed that the study of Latin and Greek possesses great practical worth, inasmuch as it furnishes a valuable acquaintance with English etymology and general grammar, leads to a vast storehouse