We have seen that Sturm made some use of double translation, but Ascham is entitled to full credit for the method, which he adopted from Pliny and perfected. Many teachers of language since that time have employed this method with excellent results.
RABELAIS[74] (1483-1553)
Though there is some obscurity as to the exact date of the birth of Rabelais, it is generally believed that he was born the same year as Luther, 1483. He was the son of a French innkeeper, and, after completing a classical course, was consecrated to the priesthood. His great ability and independent thinking, and his humanistic tendency brought reproof from his superiors, and he was ordered to perform works of penance in his cell; but through the influence of powerful friends he was freed and allowed to go over to the Benedictines, with whom, however, he did not remain long. He became an independent preacher, and as such had many friends among the reformers, chief among whom was Calvin. His intimacy with Calvin led the more radical reformers to be suspicious of him, and not without reason. Walter Besant tells us that, "One hears he is a buffoon—he is always mocking and always laughing. That is perfectly true. He laughs at the pretensions of pope, cardinal, bishop, and priest; he laughs at monkery and monks; he mocks at the perpetual iteration of litanies; he laughs at the ignorance and superstition which he thinks are about to vanish before the new day of modern learning."[75] Nor was his sympathy with the reformers any more marked. Besant further adds, "It was at that time all important that, as in England, the scholars should range themselves on the Protestant side. Rabelais refused to do this. More, he set an example which deterred other scholars, and kept them, in sheer impatience, in the enemy's camp."[76]
The great literary work of Rabelais is embodied in a series of chronicles, the first of which is called "Gargantua" and the second, "Pantagruel." It is believed that these were popular names of giants in the Middle Ages. In these books we find Rabelais's pedagogy.[77] The giant Gargantua attends a school in which scholastic methods are employed. The author skillfully ridicules the methods, and shows the utter inefficiency of the instruction by contrasting the result in Gargantua and Eudemon, a page of the king. Gargantua, a man of fifty-five, is introduced to Eudemon, a boy of twelve. The former is awkward, bashful, and does not know what to say, while the latter meets Gargantua cap in hand, with open countenance, ruddy lips, steady eyes, and with modesty becoming a youth. In reply to the polite and intelligent conversation of the lad, Gargantua "falls to crying like a cow, casting down his face, and hiding it with his cap." Compayré says, "In these two pupils, so different in manner, Rabelais has personified two contrasted methods of education: that which, by mechanical exercises of memory, enfeebles and dulls the intelligence; and that which, with large grants of liberty, develops intelligences and frank and open characters."
The deficiencies of the old education (the scholastic) being thus shown, Rabelais places his pupil under Ponocrates, Eudemon's teacher, who has produced such practical results. He then opens up his system of pedagogy in the plan pursued for the redemption of Gargantua.
Realism in Education.—Compayré's estimate of this pedagogy is as follows: "The pedagogy of Rabelais is the first appearance of what may be called realism in instruction, in distinction from the scholastic formalism. The author of 'Gargantua' turns the mind of the young man toward objects truly worthy of occupying his attention. He catches a glimpse of the future reserved to scientific education, and to the study of nature. He invites the mind, not to the labored subtleties and complicated tricks which scholasticism had brought into fashion, but to manly efforts, and to a wide unfolding of human nature."[78]
In comparing Rabelais with Lucretius, Walter Besant says, "Both, at an interval of fifteen hundred years, anticipated the nineteenth century in its restless discontent of old beliefs, its fearless questioning, its advocacy of scientific research."[79] Compayré thinks that Rabelais is "certainly the first, in point of time, of that grand school of educators who place the sciences in the first rank among the studies of human thought."[80] It would seem, then, that the author of "Gargantua" is worthy of a most honorable place among educational writers. Rabelais began a movement, which was destined to revolutionize educational methods.
The educational scheme of Rabelais embraced the study of letters, of nature, of science, of morals and religion, of the physical well-being,—in short, of everything necessary, as Herbert Spencer would say, to complete living.
MONTAIGNE[81] (1533-1592)
Of a very different character from Rabelais was Montaigne. Rabelais was radical and extravagant, Montaigne conservative and discreet; Rabelais sought development of all the faculties alike, Montaigne gave preference to the training of the judgment; Rabelais would thoroughly master every branch of human knowledge, Montaigne was content to skim over the sciences. And yet, Montaigne must be recognized as an important factor in education, not only for his own teachings, but because undoubtedly Bacon, Locke, Rousseau, and other apostles of reform were greatly influenced by him. Bacon furthered Montaigne's theories concerning the importance of science, and by his inductive method rendered the world a far greater service than his great French contemporary. Locke enlarged upon Montaigne's ideas of physical training. Rousseau accepted a vital doctrine of Montaigne in the following words: "He (Émile) possesses a universal capacity, not in point of actual knowledge, but in the faculty of acquiring it; an open, intelligent genius adapted to everything, and, as Montaigne says, if not instructed, capable of receiving instruction."