On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
other book whatever , and is peculiar to no system of education . The most extraordinary instance of presupposition that we have met with is the following : " Jacotot asserts that the youngest child can comprehend
thoroughly the terms representing the most complex abstract notions ; that is , if he previously well understands all the simple subordinate notions contained in those that are complex / ' This is tantamount to a declaration that an infant a year old may compose an oratorio , if he understands the laws of musical proportion , and their accordance with religious sentiment , together with the practical workings of the orchestra .
These remarks have left us little to say upon the rule , " Learn something thoroughly , and refer every thing else to it , " but that , though practically useful when sufficiently restricted , it is pernicious in the extreme when applied without limitation . Since " all is in all , " every thing may be learned by a reference to one thing ; but whence comes all the prejudice of little minds , all the professional narrowness , all the sectarian bigotry , all the aristocratic exclusiveness , with which the world is cursed , but from the practice
of referring all things to one thing ? We know that neither M . Jacotot nor Mr . Payne could have contemplated so large an application of their principle as this . They would not recommend a beeman to look for all truth through the glass of his hive ; nor a chemist to bring an opera to the test of his
crucible ; and are doubtless as ready as ourselves to laugh at the philosophers of Laputa riding their hobbies : but why leave to their readers to determine the bounds of their principle ? Why needlessly provoke doubt or ridicule ? Furthermore , we doubt the efficacy of the rule as far as they themselves carry it . If the reference was made to a sound principle , there could be no mistake : for there indeed would all be in all : but the reference is to be
made to some emanation of the human intellect , ( whether Fenelon's or some other , ) to something imperfect , impure , and which must therefore be superseded . A necessary consequence is , that exact truth can scarcely be attainable by such means ; and there is every danger that the intellect will be cramped , and the moral views distorted , by this subservience to something fallible , if not antiquated . Could Newton have framed his philosophy from the study of the best orrery that was ever made before his time or since ? Till there is a divinely-constituted model presented , no exclusive dependence can be safe ; no perpetual reference may be ventured on ; no calculations founded on such a reference can be accurate ; no deductions drawn from it
can be pronounced perfect until sanctioned by other authority . Again , Newton might undoubtedly have developed his system by studying one constellation alone : but would this have been his wisest way , die surest , the speediest , the simplest ? Certainly not . Neither is it the readiest way to verify the moral dicta of Massillon to recur to the " facts" of the 6 ction of Fenelon . " To shew how the 1 principle is verified , the teacher opens any author , —•
Massillon , for instance , and reads , " ' Pleasure is the first thing that endangers our innocence . The other passions develop themselves , and ripen ( so to speak ) only with the advancement of reason . '
" The pupil is asked if he can verify the reflections of Massillon by the facts of Fenelon ; and he answers in the following manner : —Telemachus yielding to pleasure in the island of Cyprus , shews that pleasure endanger innocence , and it is the first thing ; because , on the first occasion in which Telemachus found himself exposed to peril , pleasure was the cause . The other passions , &e . —this is seen * by Telemachus in the camp of the allies , by IdomeneuB , " &c *
Untitled Article
Exposition of Professor JacotoVs System of Education . 263
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 263, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/47/
-