Friedrich Froebel of Thuringia, Germany (b. April 21, 1782; d. June 2, 1852), was a born educator, and his great life-work lay wholly in that direction. He studied not so much to get knowledge of particular branches as to discover their natural unity and hidden connection. He was the advocate of the new education, and pushed the system of Pestalozzi far beyond its author’s dreams. According to Froebel, man and nature are governed by the same laws; and, by his observation of both, he reached his idea of what man’s development should be, and how to accomplish it. True development must of course proceed from within, from self activity. And as every age of man is complete in itself, its perfect development can come from only such development in the preceding age. Hence, the necessity of properly training and educating young children. This course of reasoning resulted in his invention of the kindergarten system, together with his self-sacrificing devotion in training teachers, and in his heroic perseverance notwithstanding bitter opposition, or indifference.
Victor Cousin, of France (b. November 28, 1792; d. June 15, 1867), was a renowned epoch-maker of the century in founding the school of systematic eclecticism in philosophy. His system sets forth a doctrine of catholic comprehension and toleration of others. Few men did more in official and private life to advance the cause of general education in France.
William Wilberforce, of England (b. August 24, 1759; d. July 29, 1833), with Pitt and Clarkson, led in the cause of freeing the slaves, being himself the greatest type of the English abolitionist. For forty-six years he maintained unceasing and relentless warfare against slavery, and his priceless gift to the present century was the final and complete extinction of slavery and of the slave-trade in the British possessions.
Historians.—William H. Prescott (b. May 14, 1796; d. January 27, 1859) proved himself to be an epoch-maker in the sense that he combined the worth of history with the brilliance and fascination of the novel, and developed the entirely new field of Spain’s career at home and in her colonies. His “Ferdinand and Isabella,” “Conquest of Mexico,” “Conquest of Peru,” and “History of Philip II,” all obtained a world-wide circulation, and both placed and kept their author in the highest rank of modern American historians.
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE.
François P. G. Guizot, of France (b. October 4, 1784; d. September 13, 1874), was both statesman and historian. In the former capacity he held several important public positions, and from 1840 to 1847 was, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, really at the head of the government. His many proposed reforms brought on the revolution of 1848 and the dethronement of Louis Philippe. Though ranking as one of the greatest of French statesmen, his highest and most enduring reputation rests on his historical writings, which are very numerous, and the chief of which is his “General History of Civilization in Europe.” His works are classics of historical research, and inspiring forerunners of the modern method of treating history.
James Anthony Froude (b. October 23, 1818; d. October 20, 1894) ranks as one of the brightest of England’s writers and historians, though not one of the most reliable. His writings are characterized, in the main, by ultra-Protestantism; and in his two most important works, “The English in Ireland in the 18th Century,” and “The History of England,” he endeavors to justify his country’s severe treatment of the Irish Romanists, to establish Henry VIII. as the chief champion of English independence, and also to bestow upon her ministers much of the credit popularly supposed to belong to Queen Elizabeth.
John L. Motley (b. Massachusetts, April 15, 1814; d. England, May 29, 1877) typifies the patient and painstaking searcher for truth in the development of national history; and also the sympathetic, graphic, and spirited painter of the scenes, events, and characters which he presents. His “Rise of the Dutch Republic,” “History of the United Netherlands,” and “Life and Death of John of Barneveld” are all undeniably great contributions to the historical literature of the present century, besides being monuments to the exacting toil and research of years.
