“The history of the world shows that the well-fed races have been the energetic and dominant races.”
It is necessary first and above all to establish physical force in man, and to create within him “a robust animal.”
“The actual education of children is defective in several particulars: in an insufficiency of food, in an insufficiency of clothing, in an insufficiency of exercise, and in an excess of mental application.”
Mr. Spencer complains that modern education has become wholly intellectual, and that it neglects the body. He reminds us that “the preservation of health is one of our duties,” and that there exists a thing which might be called “physical morality.”
Here, as everywhere, Mr. Spencer demands that we follow the indications of nature. He explains on physiological grounds the apparently inordinate appetite which children show for certain foods,—sugar, for example. He urgently entreats that preference shall be given to play and to free and spontaneous exercise, over gymnastics.
653. General Judgment.—That which, in our opinion, attests the truth of the pedagogical laws which we have just discussed, is that they are in agreement with the general opinions of the great modern reformers in education. It is thus that Spencer’s ideas are in close harmony with those which Pestalozzi had employed at Stanz. The success which he obtained there, as Mr. Spencer has remarked, depended on two things: first, on the attention which he used in determining what kind of instruction the children had need of, and next, on the pains he took to associate the new knowledge with that which they already possessed.
Mr. Spencer’s essay, then, deserves the attention of educators. There is scarcely a book in which a keen scent for details comes more agreeably to animate a fund of solid arguments, and from which it is more useful to extract the substance. However, it must not be read save with precaution. The brilliant English thinker sometimes fails in justness and measure, and his bold generalizations need to be tested with care.
654. Alexander Bain and Education as a Science.—Less brilliant than the work of Mr. Spencer, the book of Mr. Bain, Education as a Science, recommends itself by merits of studied analysis and scholarly minuteness. Others surpass Mr. Bain in brilliancy of imagination, in originality and in enthusiasm; but no one equals him in richness of details, in acuteness and abundance of observations. After the more venturesome have taken the lead and have published the original sketch, Mr. Bain appears and writes the methodical and complete manual. His own work resembles that of a conscientious guard who marches in the rear of a victorious army, and by a wise organization makes sure the positions conquered by the march of an impetuous commander-in-chief. His book, in other terms, is but the studious and thorough development of Mr. Spencer’s principles.
655. General Impression.—It is impossible in an analysis to bring out the merit of a book which is especially valuable for the multiplicity of the questions which the author discusses in it, and for the infinite variety of the solutions which he proposes. There are landscapes which discourage the painter, because, notwithstanding their beauty, they are too vast, too full of details, to admit of being crowded into a frame. We may say the same of Mr. Bain’s book. One must have studied it himself in order to form an estimate of its value. Professors of all classes will here find pages of well-considered counsels, and judicious reflections upon educational methods. The nature of studies, the sequence of subjects, the gradation of difficulties, the choice of exercises, the comparison of oral instruction with text-book instruction, modes of discipline,—nothing escapes a thinker who is not a mere theorist or an amateur educator, but a professional man, a competent teacher, an experienced professor.