* his play-things, his fweet-meats, and other trifles he is fond of, and we fhall presently fee whether or not you have made him truly liberal.

"An expedient, however, is readily found in this cafe; which is, by returning to children immediately whatever they give us; fo that they are ready enough to give what they know will be speedily returned to them again. I have never feen any generofity in children but what was one of these two kinds; that is, they either gave away that which was of no ufe to them, or what they were certain of having again. Mr. Locke advifes us to manage this matter fo, as to convince children by experience, that the moft liberal is always the beft provided for. This, however, is to render a child only liberal in appearance, and covetous in fact. He adds, that children would thus acquire an habit of liberality: yes, the liberality of an Ufurer, who would give a penny for a pound. But when they came to the point of giving things away in good earnest, adieu to habit: when they found things did not come back again, they would foon ceafe to give them away. We fhould regard the habit of the mind, and not that of the hands. All the other virtues which are taught children, refemble this of their liberality; and it is by preaching them up to no purpose, that we load their early years with vexation and forrow."

Take the method directly oppofite to that which is in ufe, fays our Author, and you will almost always do right.-Abfurd and inconfiftent, however, as the common methods of Education may be, we cannot help thinking, that this rule. would lead us into equal inconfiftency and abfurdity. Mr. Rouffeau, indeed, is not the first Writer whose ingenuity hath been made the dupe of his paflion for fingularity. Exceptionable, nevertheless, as his plan may appear in fome particulars refpecting the moral inftruction of children, we cannot but admire the fhrewdnefs of his obfervations concerning the actual progrefs of their faculties, and the abfurd means ufually employed in their cultivation. He remarks, that parents are too often fondly mistaken in the natural capacity of their children; thinking them prodigies of genius and understanding, when the lively fallies, or fubtle obfervations that fall from their lips, are only characteristic of their years.

Forward, prating boys, Mr. Rouffeau obferves, feldom turn out ingenious and fenfible men; while, on the other

hand,

hand, nothing is more difficult than to distinguish in children' between real ftupidity and that apparent dulnefs, which is the ufual indication of ftrong intellects. The reafons on which he grounds this latter obfervation, are not incurious. It may appear ftrange, fays he, at firft fight, that two fuch oppofite extremes fhould be indicated by the fame figns; and yet it is, nevertheless, what we ought to expect: for, at an age when we have acquired no true ideas, all the difference between a child of genius and one that hath none, is, that the latter entertains only falfe ideas of things; while the former, meeting with none but fuch, refuses to entertain any both, therefore, appear equally dull; the one, becaufe he hath no capacity for the comprehenfion of things; and the other, because the reprefentations of things are not adapted to his capacity. Such is our Author's explication of this phenomenon it seems odd, however, to fuppofe that a child, at an age when he is conceived to have little or no judgment, fhould be capable of difcerning the falfehood or incongruity of the images prefented to him.

Mr. Rouffeau proceeds next to examine into the propriety of the ufual methods of inftructing boys in literature, and in the sciences. As it is the immediate interest of Preceptors, he fays, to teach their Pupils fomething which may enable them fpeedily to make a figure in the eyes of their parents, they take particular care not to engage them in the ftudy of fuch feiences as are ufeful; because these would require them to be inftructed in the nature of things. For this reafon, they only teach them fuch as appear to be underftood when their terms are once got by rote; fuch as Geography, Chronology, the Languages, and the like; all ftudies fo foreign to the purposes of man, and particularly to thofe of a child, that it is a wonder if ever he may have occa→ fion for them as long as he lives.

"It may fegm furprizing, continues our Author, that I reckon the study of languages among the ufelefs branches of Education; but it fhould be remembered, that I am here fpeaking of the early part of childhood and, whatever may be faid to the contrary, I very much doubt whether any child, prodigies excepted, is capable of learning two languages till it arrive at the age of twelve or thirteen.

"I agree, that if the ftudy of languages confifted only in that of words, that is to fay, of the figures and founds that expreffed them, it would be a proper fudy for children; but REV. Nov. 1702.

Z

lan

languages, in varying the figns, diverfify alfo the modification of the ideas they reprefent. The memory charges itself with two languages; but our thoughts take a tincture of the different idioms. The judgment only is common to both; the imagination takes a particular form from every language; which difference may probably be in part the cause or effect of national characteristics: what appears alfo to confirm this conjecture, is, that among all the nations in the world, their language changes with their manners, or remains unaltered with them.

"Of these various forms of thinking and speaking, a child becomes habituated to one; and that is the only one he should make use of, till he comes to years of reason. In order to acquire two, it is neceffary he should be able to compare his ideas; and how fhould he compare these when he is hardly in a fituation to conceive them? To every object he might learn to give a thousand different names; but every idea must have one determinate form; he cannot therefore learn to fpeak more than one language. Will it be told me, that children do actually learn feveral? I deny the fact. I have, indeed, feen little wonderful prattlers, who were imagined to talk five or fix different languages. I have heard them fucceffively talk German, in Latin, French, and Italian words. They made ufe, it is true, of the different terms of five or fix dictionaries; but they still spoke nothing but German. In a word, fill a child's head with as many fynonimous terms as you please, you will change his words only, but not his language, for he can know but one.

"It is to conceal the incapacity of children in this refpect, that Preceptors prefer the ufe of the dead languages, in which there are no proper Judges to find fault with them. The fa

miliar ufe of thofe languages being long fince loft, they are content to imitate, as well as they can, what they find written in books; and this they call fpeaking. If fuch be the Greek and Latin of the Mafters, it is eafy to judge what must be that of their Scholars."

Mr. Rouffeau objects farther to the ftudy of Hiftory, as being above the capacity of children. The common method of inftructing them by fables, he thinks alfo abfurd and inconvenient; illuftrating his arguments on this head, by a particular examination of one of the fables of Fontaine. Fables, he fays, fhould be written for men; the fimple truth fhould be always expofed to children. But, perhaps, the in

convenience

convenience our Author exemplifies, is owing to this very circumftance, that the fables we put into the hands of children, are calculated for grown men; whereas, if the Fabulift fhould properly adapt his writings to the capacity of children, they might not be liable to the cenfure here paffed on them.

:

On the whole, Mr. Rouffeau is, by no means, for having children preffed to learn any thing. I am almoft certain, fays he, that Emilius will know perfectly well how to read and write before he is ten years old, because I give myself little trouble whether he learn it or not before he is fifteen but I had much rather he should never learn to read at all, than that he fhould acquire fuch knowlege at the expence of what would render it ufeful to him: and of what ufe would be his knowing how to read, if fo difgufted with learning it, that he should hate to look in a book for ever afterwards? Id in primis cavere opportebit, ne ftudia, qui amare nondum poterit, oderit, et amaritudinem femel perceptam etiam ultra rudes annos reformidet.

Our Author proceeds, however, ftrongly to enforce the expediency of exercising the corporeal faculties, and teaching children the use of their fenfible organs. "Of all our faculties, the fenfes are perfected the first: these, therefore, are the first we should cultivate: they are, nevertheless, the only ones that are ufually forgotten, or the most neglected.

"To exercise the fenfes, is not merely to make ufe of them; it is to learn rightly to judge by them; to learn, if I may fo express myself, to perceive; for we know how to touch, to fee, to hear, only as we have learned.

"Some exercifes are purely natural and mechanical, and ferve to make the body strong and robuft, without taking the leaft hold on the judgment: fuch are thofe of swimming, running, leaping, whipping a top, throwing ftones, &c. All these are very well: but have we only arms and legs? Have we not alfo eyes and ears; and are not these organs neceffary to the expert use of the former? Do not only exercise your ftrength, therefore, but all the fenfes that direct it; make the beft poffible use of each; and let the impreffions of one confirm those of another. Measure, reckon, weigh, and compare. Exert not your force till you have estimated the refiftance you are going to encounter; always fo contriving it, that an eftimation of the effect may precede the ufe of the means. Let your Pupil fee his intereft in never making fuperfluous or

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infufficient

infufficient efforts. By thus ufing him to forefee the effect of all his motions, and to correct his errors by experience, is it not clear, that the more extenfive and various his exercise, the more judicious he will grow?

"Let us fuppofe him going to move an heavy body by means of a lever; if he takes one too long, he will find it unmanageable with his fhort arms; if too fhort, he will not have fufficient force: experience will teach him to chufe one one of the proper length. This kind of knowlege is not above his age. Does the matter in queftion regard the lifting a burthen? If he would take up one as heavy as he could carry, and not make a fruitlefs endeavour to raise one he could not lift, is he not under a neceffity of eftimating the weight by his eye? When he knows how to make a comparifon between maffes of the fame matter, but of different bulk, let him learn to do the fame between maffes of the same bulk, but of different matter; he will then experience the difference of their specific gravity. I remember a young man, very well educated, who could not be perfuaded, till he had made the experiment, that a tub full of cleft wood, was lighter than the fame tub filled with water.

"We are not all equally expert in the use of our fenfes. There is one, to wit, the touch, whofe action is never fufpended while we are awake, and which is extended over the whole furface of the body, as a continual guard to give us notice of every thing that may be offenfive. It is by means of the continual and involuntary exercife of this fense, that we acquire our earliest experience, which makes it the lefs ncedful for us to give it any particular cultivation. We find, however, that blind people have a much stronger and more delicate fenfe of feeling than we; becaufe, having no information from the fight, they are obliged to deduce the same conclufious from the former fenfe only, which we are furnifhed with by the latter. Why then fhould we not learn to walk, like them, in the dark; to know bodies by the touch, to judge of the objects that furround us; to do, in fhort, by night without candles, all they do by day without eyes? While the fun is above the horizon, we have the advantage of them, and lead them about; but in the dark, they are our guides, and take the lead in turn. We are blind as they during one half of our lives, with this difference, that those who are really blind, can at all times find their way about; whereas, we that have eyes hardly dare to ftir a foot in the night. Will it be faid, we may call for candles and torches? We

may