[CHAPTER XIII.]
ROUSSEAU AND THE ÉMILE.
THE PEDAGOGY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE PRECURSORS OF ROUSSEAU; THE ABBÉ DE SAINT PIERRE; OTHER INSPIRERS OF ROUSSEAU; PUBLICATION OF THE ÉMILE (1762); ROUSSEAU AS A TEACHER; GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE ÉMILE; ITS ROMANTIC AND UTOPIAN CHARACTER; DIVISION OF THE WORK; THE FIRST TWO BOOKS; EDUCATION OF THE BODY AND OF THE SENSES; LET NATURE ACT; THE MOTHER TO NURSE HER OWN CHILDREN; NEGATIVE EDUCATION; THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO HAPPINESS; THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ÉMILE; CHOICE IN THE THINGS TO BE TAUGHT; THE ABBÉ DE SAINT PIERRE AND ROUSSEAU; ÉMILE AT FIFTEEN; EDUCATION OF THE SENSIBILITIES; THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ÉMILE; GENESIS OF THE AFFECTIONS; MORAL EDUCATION; RELIGIOUS EDUCATION; THE PROFESSION OF FAITH OF THE SAVOYARD VICAR; SOPHIE AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN; GENERAL CONCLUSION; INFLUENCE OF ROUSSEAU; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.
302. The Pedagogy of the Eighteenth Century.—The most striking of the general characteristics of French pedagogy in the eighteenth century, is that in it the lay spirit comes into mortal collision with the ecclesiastical spirit. What a contrast between the clerical preceptors of the seventeenth century and the philosophical educators of the eighteenth! The Jesuits, all-powerful under Louis XIV., are to be decried, condemned, and finally expelled in 1762. The first place in the theory and in the practice of education, will belong to laymen. Rousseau is to write the Émile. D’Alembert and Diderot will be the educational advisers of the Empress of Russia. The parliamentarians, La Chalotais and Rolland, will attempt to substitute for the action of the Jesuits the action of the State, or, at least, one of the powers of the State. Finally, with the Revolution, the lay spirit will succeed in triumphing.
Again, the pedagogy of the eighteenth century is distinguished by its critical and reformatory tendencies. The century of Louis XIV. is, in general, a century of content; the century of Voltaire, a century of discontent.
Besides, the philosophical spirit, which associates the theory of education with the laws of the human spirit, which is not content to modify routine by a few ameliorations of detail, which establishes general principles and aspires to an ideal perfection,—the philosophical spirit, with its excellencies and with its defects,—will come to the light in the Émile, and in some other writings of the same period.
Finally, and this last characteristic is but the consequence of the others, education tends to become national, and at the same time humane. Preparation for life replaces preparation for death. During the whole of the eighteenth century, a conception is in process of elaboration which the men of the Revolution will exhibit in its true light,—that of an education, public and national, which makes citizens, which works for country and for real life.
303. Precursors of Rousseau.—The greatest educational event of the eighteenth century, before the expulsion of the Jesuits and the events of the French Revolution, is the publication of the Émile. Rousseau is undeniably the first in rank among the founders of French pedagogy, and his influence will be felt abroad, especially in Germany. But whatever may be the originality of the author of the Émile, his system is not a stroke of genius for which no preparation had been made. He had his precursors, and he profited by their works. A Benedictine, who might have spent his strength to better advantage, has written a book on the Plagiarisms of J. J. Rousseau.[169]
We do not propose to treat Rousseau as a plagiarist, for he surely has inspiration of his own, and his own boldness in invention; but however much of an innovator he may be, he was inspired by Montaigne, by Locke, and without speaking of those great masters whom he often imitated, he had his immediate predecessors, whose ideas on certain points are in conformity with his own.
304. The Abbé de Saint Pierre (1658-1743).—Among the precursors of Rousseau, a place among the first must be assigned to the Abbé de Saint Pierre, a dreamy, fantastic spirit, fitted more to excite curiosity than to deserve admiration, whom Rousseau himself called “a man of great projects and petty views.” His projects in fact were great, at least in number. Between “a project to make sermons more useful, and a project to make roads more passable,” there came, in his incoherent and varied work, several projects for perfecting education in general, and the education of girls in particular.