Likewise, about the same time, the other great development in science among the Greeks,—anatomy and physiology, was completely revolutionized. Through the discovery of valves in the veins by means of dissection and vivisection, the hypothesis of the double circulation of the blood by Harvey (1578-1657), and the microscopic demonstrations by Malpighi (1628-1694) of the existence of capillaries connecting the veins and the arteries, the old theory of the motion of the blood through suction, which had been promulgated by Galen, was completely shattered, and a great impetus was given to investigations in anatomy and physiology. In consequence of this scientific progress, the educational theorists began to introduce science and a knowledge of real things into the curriculum. It came to be widely felt that humanism gave a knowledge only of words, books, and opinions, and did not even at its best lead to a study of real things. Hence, new methods and new books were produced, to shorten and improve the study of the classical languages, and new content was imported into the courses of study. The movement also included an attempt at a formulation of scientific principles in education and an adaptation to the nature of the child.
Bacon and His Inductive Method.—The new tendency, however, did not appear in education until after the time of Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The use of the Bacon rejected the deductive method of the day, scientific method by the various discoverers was largely unconscious, and it remained for Bacon to formulate what he called the method of ‘induction’ and by advocating its use, to point the way to its development as a scientific method in education. He is, therefore, ordinarily known as the first sense realist. He reacted from deductive logic, which was currently supposed to be the sole method of Aristotle, and took his cue in formulating a new method of reasoning from the many scientific workers of his time. He made a great advance in his rejection of the contemporary method of attempting to establish the first principles of a science, and then deducing from them by means of the syllogism all the propositions which that science could contain. However, his Novum Organum, or ‘new instrument’ as he called his treatise, in endeavoring to create a method whereby anyone could attain all the knowledge of which the human mind was capable, undertook far too much, and resulted but created a mechanical procedure. in a merely mechanical procedure. Briefly stated, his plan was, after ridding the mind of individual prejudices, to observe and carefully tabulate lists of all the facts of nature, and from these discover the underlying law by comparing the cases where a certain phenomenon appears and where it does not.
But by this method neither Bacon himself nor anyone else has ever made any real contribution to science. It does not follow that, because all observed cases under certain conditions produce a particular effect, every other He failed to formulate the true inductive method, instance not yet observed will necessarily have the same effect. The true method of induction, which was evident even in the work of Kepler, and came to be more so in the discoveries of Harvey and Newton, stresses rather the part played by scientific imagination, as it is manifested by men of genius in the forming of an hypothesis. The modern procedure is as follows:—When certain effects are observed, of which the cause or law is unknown, the scientist frames an hypothesis (i. e., makes a conjecture) to account for them; then he tests this hypothesis, by collecting facts and comparing with these facts the conclusions to which his hypothesis would lead; and, if they correspond or agree, he holds that his hypothesis has been confirmed or verified, and maintains that he has discovered the cause or law. Nevertheless, while Bacon did not formulate the inductive method of modern science, he largely helped to rid the times of an unwise though he rid the times of a priori reasoning. dependence upon a priori reasoning, and he did call attention to the necessity of careful observation and experimentation, and thus opened the way for real inductive procedure. Probably no book ever made a greater revolution in modes of thinking or overthrew more prejudices than Bacon’s Novum Organum.
Bacon’s Educational Suggestions and Influence.—Bacon was not a teacher, and his treatment of educational problems appears in brief and scattered passages. While he offers isolated suggestions concerning the mental and moral training of the young, he plans no serious modification in the existing organization of schools. He does, Bacon was not especially interested in education, however, in his New Atlantis imply an interest in promoting scientific research and higher education. In the ideal society depicted in that work, he describes an organization of scholars called ‘Salomon’s House,’ whose members in their investigations anticipate much that scientists and inventors have to-day only just begun to realize. Among these anticipations were the variation of species, the infusion of serums, vivisection, telescopes, telephones, flying-machines, submarine boats, and steam-engines. From this description Bacon would seem to believe that education should be organized upon the basis of society’s gradually accumulating a knowledge of nature and imparting it to all pupils at every stage. At any rate, in his Advancement of Learning, he definitely suggests a wider course of study, more complete equipment for scientific investigation, a closer coöperation among institutions of learning, and a forwarding of ‘unfinished sciences.’ And such a plan of pansophia, or ‘universal knowledge,’ was specified in the educational creed of the later sense realists, who worked out the Baconian theory of education. Hence, while not skilled or greatly interested in education himself, Bacon influenced but his suggestions influenced Ratich and Comenius. profoundly the writing of many who were, and has done much to shape the spirit of modern practice. His method was first applied directly to education by a German known as Ratich, and, in a more effective way, by Comenius, a Moravian.
Ratich’s Methods.—Ratich (1571-1635) probably became acquainted with the sense realism of Bacon while studying in England, and, when about forty years of age, undertook to found a system of education upon it. In linguistic training, like all realists, he insisted that one “should first study the vernacular” as an introduction to Linguistic training. other languages. He also held to the principle of “one thing at a time and often repeated.” By this he meant that, in studying a language, one should master a single book before taking up another. In his teaching at Köthen, as soon as his pupils knew their letters, they were required to learn Genesis thoroughly for the sake of their German. Each chapter was read twice by the teacher, while the pupil followed the text with his finger. When the pupils could read the book perfectly, they were taught grammar from it as a text. The teacher pointed out the various parts of speech and made the boys find other examples, and had them decline, conjugate, and parse. In taking up Latin, a play of Terence was Other realistic principles. treated in similar fashion. Others of the principles that he used in teaching language and grammar, and especially those which applied to education in general, were even more distinctly realistic. Such, for example, were his precepts,—“follow the order of nature” and “everything by experiment and induction,” and his additional recommendation that “nothing is to be learned by rote.” Thus Ratich not only helped shape some of the best methods for teaching languages, but anticipated the main principles of modern pedagogy. While, owing to obtrusive failings in character and experience, he was uniformly unsuccessful in his practice, he, nevertheless, Influence. stirred up considerable thought and stimulated many treatises of others. Thus, through Comenius, who carried out his principles more fully, this German innovator, impractical as he was, became a spiritual ancestor to Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Herbart.
Comenius: His Training and Work.—John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was born at Nivnitz, Moravia, and was by religious inheritance a staunch adherent of the Moravian Church. After a course in a Latin school, Education, he spent a couple of years in higher education at the Lutheran College of Herborn and at the University of wanderings, Heidelberg. In consequence of many vicissitudes in life, he lived and wrote in a number of places, and became acquainted with the work of a variety of men engaged in educational reform and advancement. While the problems with which they were dealing were similar to his own and largely influenced his educational positions, he far surpassed them all in scope of work and greatness of repute. His educational achievements were the outgrowth of sense realism, and appear in three and achievements. directions:—(1) the series of texts for learning Latin; (2) his Great Didactic; and (3) his attempts to create an encyclopædic organization of knowledge (pansophia).
His Series of Latin Texts.—The first of the famous texts that Comenius produced to facilitate the study of Latin was issued in 1631, and has generally been known The plan of the Janua. by the name of Janua Linguarum Reserata (The Gate of Languages Unlocked). It was intended as an introductory book to the study of Latin, and consisted of an arrangement into sentences of several thousand Latin words for the most familiar objects and ideas. The Latin was printed on the right-hand side of the page, and on the left was given a translation in the vernacular. By this means the pupil obtained a grasp of all ordinary scientific knowledge and at the same time a start in his Latin vocabulary. In writing this text, Comenius may have been somewhat influenced by Ratich, a review of whose methods he had read at Herborn, but he seems to have been more specifically indebted both for his method and the felicitous name of his book to a Jesuit known as Bateus, who had written a similar work.
It was soon apparent that the Janua would be too difficult for beginners, and two years later Comenius The Vestibulum, issued his Vestibulum (Vestibule), as an introduction to it. While the Janua contained all the ordinary words of the language,—some eight thousand, there were but a few hundred of the most common in the Vestibulum. Later both of the works were several times revised, modified, and enlarged; and grammars, lexicons, and treatises were written to accompany them. He also Atrium, published a third Latin reader, the Atrium (Entrance Hall), which took the pupil one stage beyond the Janua. We know, too, that he intended also to write a still more Palatium, advanced work, to be called Sapientiae Palatium (Palace of Wisdom). This fourth book was to consist of selections from the best Latin authors, but it was never completed. He did, however, produce as a supplementary text-book a simpler and more extensive edition of the Janua, accompanied with pictures. Each object in the illustrations of this book was marked with a number corresponding to one in the text. This work, which he and Orbis Pictus. called Orbis Sensualium Pictus (The World of Sense Objects Pictured), is the first illustrated reading book on record ([Fig. 21]).
The Great Didactic.—But these books on teaching Latin realistically were only part of the work that Comenius contemplated. During his whole career he had in mind a definite idea of the aim of education, and of what, in consequence, he wished the organization, subject-matter, and methods to be. His ideas on the Indebtedness to others. whole question of education were formulated in his Great Didactic even before the Janua appeared, but the work was not published until 1657. In it he strove to His aim and organization of education. assimilate all that was good in the realistic movement and use it as a foundation. He developed many of the principles and methods of Ratich, Bateus, and others, but he owed a greater debt for the suggestions he took from Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, and even more from the Encyclopædia of Alsted, one of his teachers at Herborn. In the Great Didactic Comenius formulated an educational aim and constructed an educational organization of his own. Probably, as an outgrowth of his religious attitude, he held to ‘knowledge, morality, and piety’ as the ideals of education, and advocated universal education for ‘boys and girls, both noble and ignoble, rich and poor.’ His organization of education consisted of four periods of six years each. The first period of instruction was that through infancy, or up to the age of six. It was to be given in the school of ‘the mother’s lap,’ which should exist in every house. For childhood, or from six to twelve, was to be organized the ‘vernacular school,’ which should appear in every hamlet and village. From that time up to eighteen comes the ‘Latin school,’ to be maintained in every city; and, finally, for youth from eighteen to twenty-four, there should be a university in every kingdom or province. Such an organization would have made education universal, and would tend to bring about the custom of education according to ability, rather than social status, which was a suggestion some three centuries in advance of the times.
| Muntero Caps, 20. &c. | Amiculum, 20. &c. |
| So the Furrier | Sic Pellio |
| maketh Furred Garments | facit Pellicia |
| of Furs. | è Pellibus. |
The Shoemaker.LXIII.Sutor.  | |
| The Shoemaker, 1. maketh Slippers, 7. Shoes, 8. (in which is seen above, the Upper-leather, beneath the Sole, and on both sides the Latchets) Boots, 9. and High Shoes, 10. of Leather, 5. (which is cut with a Cutting-knife), 6. by means of an Awl, 2. and Lingel, 3. upon a Last, 4. | Sutor, 1. conficit Crepidas (Sandalia,) 7. Calceos, 8. (in quibus spectatur superne Obstragulum, inferne Solea, et utrinque Ansæ) Ocreas, 9. et Perones, 10. e Corio, 5. (quod discinditur Scalpro Sutorio, 6.) ope Subulæ, 2. et Fili picati, 3. super Modum, 4. |
Fig. 21.—A page from the Orbis Pictus of Comenius, illustrating alesson on a trade. (Reproduced from the edition published by C. W. Bardeen, 1887.) | |