But this piece of work is little worthy of its author, and little worthy in particular of the Encyclopédie. It contains scarcely anything but vague and trite generalities, and belongs to the category of those articles for padding which caused Voltaire to say: “You accept articles worthy of the Journal of Trévoux.” We shall notice, however, in this article, the importance accorded to the study of physics, and to the practice of the arts, even the most common, and the marked purpose to “subordinate” knowledges and studies, or to distribute them in a logical, or rather psychological, order; for example, to cause the concrete always to precede the abstract. But, after having lost himself in considerations of but little interest on the development of ideas and sentiments in the human soul, the author, who is decidedly far below his task, concludes by recommending to young people “the reading of newspapers.”
The other pedagogical articles of the Encyclopédie are equally deficient in striking novelties. If the great work of D’Alembert and Diderot has contributed something to the progress of education, it is less through the insufficient efforts which it has directly attempted in this direction, than through the general influence which it has exercised on the French mind in extolling the sciences in their theoretical study as well as in their practical applications, in diffusing technical knowledge, in glorifying the industrial arts, and in thus preparing for the coming of a scientific and positive education in place of an education exclusively literary and of pure form.
364. Kant (1724-1804).—We know the considerable influence which, for a century, Kant has exercised on the development of philosophy. Since Descartes, no thinker had to the same degree excited an interest in the great problems of philosophy, nor more vigorously obliged the human reason to render an account of itself. It is then a piece of good fortune for the science of education that a philosopher of this order has taken up the discussion of pedagogical questions, and has thrown upon them the light of his penetrating criticism. The admiration which he felt for Rousseau, his attentive and impassioned reading of the Émile, his own reflections on the monastic education which he had received at the Collegium Fredericianum, a sort of small seminary conducted by the Pietists, the experience which he had had as a preceptor in several families that entrusted him with their children, and finally, above all else, his profound studies on human nature and his exalted moral philosophy, had given him a capital preparation for treating educational questions. Professor at the University of Königsberg, he several times resumes the discussion of pedagogical subjects with a marked predilection for them, and the notes of his lectures, collected by one of his colleagues, formed the little Treatise on Pedagogy which we are about to analyze.[190]
365. High Conception of Education.—In the opinion of Kant, the art of educating men, with that of governing them, is the most difficult and the most important of all. It is by education alone that humanity can be perfected and regenerated:—
“It is pleasant to think that human nature will always be better and better developed by education, and that at last there will thus be given it the form which best befits it.
“To know how far the omnipotence of education can go, it would be necessary that a being of a superior order should undertake the bringing up of men.”
But in order that it may attain this exalted end, education must be set free from routine and traditional methods. It must bring up children, not in view of their success in the present state of human society, but “in view of a better state, possible in the future, and according to an ideal conception of humanity and of its complete destination.”
366. Psychological Optimism.—Kant comes near accepting the opinion of Rousseau on the original innocence of man and the perfect goodness of his natural inclinations:—
“It is said in medicine that the physician is but the servant of nature. This is true of the moralist. Ward off the bad influences from without, and nature can be trusted to find for herself the best way.”[191]