Emilius and Sophia: or, a new Syftem of Education. Tranflated from the French of J. J. Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva.

TH HE fault most generally ob

ferved in difcourfes upon education, is a tendency to common place. Nothing, in fact, can be more trite, than the greateft part of the obfervations, which have been retailed upon that fubject from Quintilian down to monfieur Rollin. This is however the fault, into which the ingenious author of Emilius is, of all others, in the leaft danger of falling. To know what the received notions are upon any fubject, is to know with certainty what thofe of Rouffeau are not. In his treatife on the inequality amongst mankind, he has fhewn his man in a natural state; in his Emilius he undertakes to educate him. In the profecution of this defign he begins early, and carefully attends his pupil from his cradle to his marriagebed. He forms him to morals, to fcience, to knowledge of men, and to natural labour, and at length gives him a wife, whom he has previously educated for him according to ideas a little different from that model which he had formed in his Eloife.

In this Syftem of Education there are fome very confiderable parts that are impracticable, others that are chimerical; and not a few highly blameable, and dangerous both to piety and morals. It is easy to difcern how it has happened,

for 1752.

that this book fhould be cenfured as well at Geneva as in Paris. However, with those faults in the defign, with the whimfies into which his paradoxical genius continually hurries him, there are a thousand noble hints relative to his fubject, grounded on a profound knowledge of the human mind, and the order of its operations. There are many others, which, though they have little relation to the fubject, are admirable on their own account; and even, in his wildeft fallies, we now and then discover ftrokes of the most folid fenfe, and inftructions of the moft ufeful nature. Indeed he very feldom thinks himself bound to adhere to any fettled order or defign, but is borne away by every object started by his vivid imagination; and hurries continually from fyftem to fyftem, in the career of an animated, glowing, exuberant ftile, which paints every thing with great minutenefs, yet with infinite fpirit.

There is, it must be acknowledged, one confiderable defect in his judgment, which infects both his matter and his ftile. He never knows where to stop. He feldom can difcover that precife point in which excellence confifts, where to exceed is almoft as bad as to fall fhort, and which every step you go beyond, you grow worfe and worfe. He is therefore frequently tirefome and difgufting by pushing his notions to excefs; and by repeating the fame thing in a thoufand different ways. Poverty can hardly be more vicious than fuch an abundance. To give the Q.2

reader

himself, or perhaps break in pieces a valuable utenfil that may happen to be unluckily placed within his reach. He may do a great deal of harm without doing ill; because the evil of the action depends on his intention to do an injury, and he will be always free from fuch intention. Should he not, and fhould he once acquire an evil intention, he is already fpoiled; he is vicious almost beyond remedy.

An action may be evil in the eyes of avarice, that is not fo in those of reafon. In leaving children at full liberty to play about as they pleafe, it is proper to remove every thing out of their way that may render their agility or wantonnefs offenfive; thus nothing that is brittle and coftly should be left within their reach. Let the furniture of their apartment be coarfe and folid: let them have no looking-glafs, no china, nor other objects of luxury. As to my Emilius, whom I educate in the country, his chamber fhall have nothing in it, whereby it may be diftinguished from that of the meanest peafant. To what purpose fhould it be carefully ornamented, when he is to stay in it fo fhort a time? But I forget; he will himself decorate it after his own fancy; we fhall fee prefently in what manner.

If, notwithstanding your precaution, your child fhould commit fome diforder, or break fome piece of furniture, don't go to punish or rate him for your own negligence; don't let him bear from you a fingle word of reproach; let him not ever perceive you are difpleased, but actexactly in the fame manner as if it had been broke by accident: in a word, you have effected a great inay think you point, if you can prevail on yourself to fay nothing about the matter.

May I venture here to lay down the greatest, most important and moft ufeful rule of education? It is this, not to gain time, but to lofe it. The generality of readers will be fo good as to excufe my paradoxes; there is an abfolute neceffity for them, when we make reflections and, fay what you will, I had rather be remarkable for hunting after a paradox, than for being misled by prejudice. The most critical interval of human life is that between the hour of our birth and twelve years of ags. This is the time wherein vice and error take root, without our being poffeffed of any inftrument to deftroy them : and when the implement is found, they are fo deeply grounded, that they are no longer to be eradicated. If children took a leap from their mother's breast, and at once arrived at the age of reason, the methods of education now usually taken with them would be very proper; but, according to the progrefs of nature, they require thofe which are very different. We fhould not tamper with the mind, till it has acquired all its faculties: for it is impoffible it should perceive the light we hold out to it while it is blind; or that it fhould pursue, over an immense plain of ideas, that route which reafon hath fo flightly traced, as to be perceptible only to the fharpeft fight.

The first part of education, therefore, ought to be purely negative. It confift neither in teaching vir tue nor truth; but in guarding the heart from vice and the mind fron error. If you could be content to do nothing yourself, and could prevent any thing being done by others; if you could bring up your pupil healthy and robust to the age

twelve years without his being able to diftinguish his right hand from his left; the eyes of his understanding would be open to reafon at your firft leffon: void both of habit and prejudice, his paffions would not operate against your endeavours; and he would become under proper inftructions the wifeft of men. It is thus, by attempting nothing in the beginning, you might produce a prodigy of education.

Take the road directly oppofite to that which is in ufe, and you will almost always do right. As we think it not enough children fhould be children, but it is expected they should be mafters of arts; fo fathers and preceptors think they can never have too many checks, corrections, reprimands, menaces, promifes, inftructions, fair speeches, and fine arguments. You will act wifer than all this, by being reafonable yourself, and never arguing with your child, particularly in triving to reconcile him to what he diflikes: for to ufe him to reafon only upon disagreeable fubjects, is the way to difgust him, and bring argument early into difcredit with a mind incapable of understanding it. Exercife his corporcal organs, fenfes, and faculties, as much as you please, but keep his intellectual ones inactive as long as poffible. Be cautious of all the fentiments he acquires previous to the judgment, which should enable him to fcrutinize them. Prevent or refrain all foreign impreffions; and, in order to hinder the rife of evil, be not in too great a hurry to inftil good for it is only fuch when the mind is enlightened by reafon. Look upon every delay as an advantage; it is gaining a great deal to advance without lofing any thing; let the infancy of children therefore have time to ripen. In short, whatever

intruction is neceffary for them, take care not to give it them today, if it may be deferred without danger till to-morrow.

Another confideration which confirms the utility of this method, is the peculiar genius of the child, which ought to be known before it can be judged what moral regimen is beft adapted to it. Every mind hath its peculiar turn, according to which it ought to be educated ; and it is of very material confequence to our endeavours, that it be educated according to that turn, and not to any other. The prudent governor will watch a long time the workings of nature, will obferve his pupil well before he speaks the first word to him: leave then his natural character at liberty to unfold itself; lay it under no restraint whatever, that it may be the better laid open to view. Do you think the time loft in which a child is thus left at liberty? Quite the contrary: it will be thus beft employed: for, is it not thus you yourself learn to husband time still more precious? If you fet about any thing before you know in what manner to act, you proceed at random liable to mistake, you are frequently obliged to undo what is done; and find yourselves farther from the end defigned, than if you had been lefs precipitate to begin the work. Act not the miser, who lofes much because he is unwilling to lose little; but facrifice in infancy that time which you will regain with ufury in a more advanced age. A prudent phyfician does not go blundering to prefcribe, at first fight of the fick; he enquires first into the temperament and circumftances of the patient, and then adapts his prefcription to them: he begins late to adminifter his re

medies,