[85] Book I. chap. XXV.
[86] Has not this extravagant preference for things, as distinguished from words, become a new superstition in educational theory? Considering the misuse made of words by Scholasticism, it was time for Montaigne to summon the attention outwards to sensible realities; but it is more than doubtful whether there is any valid ground for the absolute rule of modern pedagogy, “first the idea, then the term.” In actual experience, there is no invariable sequence. The really important thing is, that terms be made significant. (P.)
[87] Book I. chap. XXV.
[88] Book I. chap. XXV.
[89] Book II. chap. VIII.
[90] I am not sure that this remark does not do Montaigne injustice, especially when we consider the connection in which the original remark is made: “I am of opinion that what is not to be done by reason, prudence, and address, is never to be effected by force. I myself was brought up after that manner; and they tell me that, in all my first age, I never felt the rod but twice, and then very easily. I have practised the same method with my children, who all of them dy’d at nurse; but Leonora, my only daughter, is arrived to the age of six years and upwards without other correction for her childish faults than words only, and those very gentle.” Book II. chap. VIII. (P.)
[91] Book III. chap. XIII.
[92] Book III. chap. III.
[93] Book III. chap. III.
[94] See particularly Chap. XIV. of Book III.