567. Miss Edgeworth (1767-1849).—It is with the Scotch philosophy and the psychological theories of Reid and Dugald Stewart, that were inspired in different degrees two distinguished women, who honored English pedagogy at the beginning of this century,—Miss Edgeworth and Miss Hamilton.
In her book on Practical Education, published in 1798,[238] Miss Edgeworth does not lose herself in theoretical dissertations. Her book is a collection of facts, observations, and precepts. The first chapter treats of toys, and the author justifies this beginning by saying that in education there is nothing trivial and minute. It is first by conversations, and then by the use of the inventive, analytical, and intuitive method, that Miss Edgeworth proposes to train her pupils; and her reflections on intellectual education deserve to be considered. In moral education she agrees with Locke, and seems to place great reliance on the sentiment of honor, and on the love of reputation. In every case she absolutely ignores the religious feeling. The characteristic of her system is that it makes “a total abstraction of religious ideas.”
568. Miss Hamilton (1758-1816).—Miss Hamilton is at once more philosophical and more Christian than Miss Edgeworth. It is from the psychologist Hartley that she borrows her essential principle, which consists in making of the association of ideas the basis of education. Hartley saw in this the sovereign law of intellectual development. But, on the other hand, she declares “that she follows no other guide than the precepts of the Gospel.”
The principal work of Miss Hamilton, her Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education (1801),[239] has a more theoretical character than the book of Miss Edgeworth. With her it is above all else a question of principles, which, she says, are more necessary than rules. We find but few reflections on teaching proper. She borrows the very words of Dugald Stewart to define the object of education:—
“The most essential objects of education are the following: first, to cultivate all the various principles of our nature, both speculative and active, in such a manner as to bring them to the greatest perfection of which they are susceptible; and secondly, by watching over the impressions and associations which the mind receives in early life, to secure it against the influence of prevailing errors; and, as far as possible, to engage its prepossessions on the side of truth.”[240]
To cultivate the intellectual and moral faculties, Miss Hamilton places her chief dependence, as we have said, on the principle of the association of ideas. We must break up, or, rather, prevent from being formed, all false associations, that is, all inaccurate judgments. Order once re-established among ideas, the will will be upright, and the conduct well regulated. In other terms, this was to subordinate, perhaps too completely, the development of the moral faculties to the culture of the intellectual faculties.
“It is evident,” says Miss Hamilton, “that all our desires are in accord with ideas of pleasure, and all our aversions with ideas of pain.”
The educator will then try to associate the idea of pleasure with what is good and useful for the child and for the man.
Let us also note, in passing, the solicitude of Miss Hamilton for the education of the people:—
“From most of the writers on education it would appear that it is only to people of rank and fortune that education is a matter of any importance.... My plan has for its object the cultivation of the faculties that are common to the whole human race.”[241]