spoiled, we shall enjoy reading it. What wonderful book is this? Aristotle? Pliny? Buffon? No; it is "Robinson Crusoe."

The story of this man, alone on his island, unaided by his fellow-men, without any art or its implements, and yet providing for his own preservation and subsistence, even contriving to live in what might be called comfort, is interesting to persons of all ages. It may be made delightful to children in a thousand ways. Thus we make the desert island, which I used at the outset for a comparison, a reality.

25. In a word, Émile has every virtue which affects himself. To have the social virtues as well, he only needs to know the relations which make them necessary; and this knowledge his mind is ready to receive. He considers himself independently of others, and is satisfied when others do not think of him at all. He exacts nothing from others, and never thinks of owing anything to them. He is alone in human society, and depends solely upon himself. He has the best right of all to be independent, for he is all that any one can be at his age. He has no errors but such as a human being must have; no vices but those from which no one can warrant himself exempt. He has a sound constitution, active limbs, a fair and unprejudiced mind, a heart free and without passions. Self-love, the first and most natural of all, has scarcely manifested itself at all. Without disturbing any one's peace of mind he has led a happy, contented life, as free as nature will allow. Do you think a youth who has thus attained his fifteenth year has lost the years that have gone before?

BOOK IV.

26. Respect your species; consider that it is composed essentially of a collection of peoples; that even if all the kings and all the philosophers were taken away, they would

scarcely be missed, and that things would not go worse. In → a word, teach your pupil to love all men, even those who despise them; let him not belong to any class, but be at home in all. Speak before him of the human race with tenderness, even with pity, but never with contempt. Man, do not dishonor man!

27. When the critical age approaches, bring before young people scenes that will restrain and not excite them; give a change to their nascent imagination by objects which, far from inflaming their senses, will repress the activity of them. Remove them from great cities where the dress and immodesty of women will hasten and anticipate the lessons of nature, where everything presents to their eyes pleasures which they ought to be acquainted with only when they know how to choose them. Take them back to their first dwellingplace, where rural simplicity lets the passions of their age develop less rapidly; or if their taste for the arts still attaches them to the city, prevent in them, by this taste itself, a dangerous idleness. Carefully choose their associations, their occupations, and their pleasures; show them only touching but modest pictures, which will move without demoralizing them, and which will nourish their sensibilities without stirring their senses.

28. When I see that young people, at the age of greatest activity, are restricted to studies purely speculative, and that afterwards, without the slightest experience, they are suddenly thrown into society and business, I find that reason no less than nature is offended, and I am no longer surprised that so few persons know how to act. By what strange perversity of mind are we taught so many useless things, while the art of doing counts for nothing? People pretend to form us for society, and instruct us as if each one were to pass his life in thinking alone in his cell, or in treating subjects with indifference. You think you are teaching

PAINTER PED. ESS.- 22

your children to live by instructing them in certain contortions of the body and in certain forms of words, which have no meaning. I too have taught my Émile to live; for I have taught him to live with himself, and besides to know how to earn his bread. But that is not enough. To live in society, we must know how to deal with men, how to recognize the means of influencing them; how to calculate the action and reaction of individual interests in civil society, and to foresee events so clearly that we are rarely deceived, or at least always take the best means to succeed.

29. I foresee how many of my readers will be surprised to see me let the early years of my pupil pass without speaking to him of religion. At fifteen he did not know whether he had a soul, and perhaps at eighteen it is not yet time for him to learn it; for if he learns it sooner than is necessary, he runs the risk of never knowing it.

30. If there is nothing of morality in the human soul, whence come those transports of admiration for heroic deeds, those raptures of love for great souls? What relation has this enthusiasm for virtue with our private interests? Why should I rather be Cato who thrusts a dagger into his heart, than Cæsar with all his triumphs? Take away from our hearts this love of the beautiful, and you take away all the charm of life. He whose vile passions have stifled in his narrow soul these delightful sentiments; he who, by always centering his thoughts upon himself, comes at length to love only himself, has no more transports; his icy heart no longer palpitates with joy; a sweet tenderness never moistens his eyes; he no longer enjoys anything; the wretch no longer feels, no longer lives; he is already dead:

31. Be sincere and true without pride; know how to be ignorant; you will deceive neither yourself nor others. If ever your cultivated talents put you in a position to speak to men, speak to them always according to your conscience.

without being embarrassed if they do not applaud. The abuse of knowledge begets incredulity. Every learned man disdains the common sentiment; each one wishes to have an opinion of his own. A proud philosophy leads to scepticism, as a blind devotion leads to fanaticism. Avoid these extremes; always remain firm in the path of truth, or of what seems to be so in the simplicity of your heart, without ever turning aside through vanity or weakness. Dare to confess God among philosophers; dare to preach humanity to the intolerant. You will be alone in your position perhaps; but you will have within yourself a testimony that will enable you to do without that of men. Whether they love you or hate you, whether they read or despise your writings, makes no difference. Speak what is true, do what is right; that which is important for man is to fulfil his duties upon the earth; and it is by forgetting one's self that one works for one's self. My child, selfish interests deceive us; it is only the hope of the just that never deceives.

BOOK V.

32. On the good constitution of mothers depends that of children; on the care of woman depends the first education of men; on woman depend again their manners, their passions, their tastes, their pleasures, and even their happiness. Thus all the education of women ought to be relative to men. To please them, to be useful to them, to make themselves loved and honored by them, to bring them up when young," to care for them when grown, to counsel and console them, to render their life agreeable and sweet these are the duties of women in every age, and what they ought to learn from their childhood. So long as we do not recognize this principle, we shall miss the end, and all the precepts we give them will be of no service either for their happiness or ours.

XXII. IMMANUEL KANT.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

This illustrious philosopher was born at Königsberg, April 22, 1724, and died there February 12, 1804. He was educated in the University of his native city, where, after serving as a tutor in private families for several years, and afterwards acting as Privatdocent, he was appointed professor in the philosophical faculty in 1770. His life was given to study with great singleness of purpose; he never married, and it is said that he never traveled beyond the limits of the small province in which he was born. His philosophic system, known as the critical philosophy, marks a turning point in the history of speculative thought. He proved himself one of the profoundest thinkers of all time.

With his philosophical system, which had no immediate or determining influence upon his educational system, we have here nothing to do. As professor of philosophy Kant was required to deliver courses of lectures on pedagogy, a subject in which he had become deeply interested. He had read Rousseau's "Émile" with delighted attention, and observed Basedow's experiments with hopeful interest. Unfortunately he did not prepare an elaborate work on education. What we have are the notes of his lectures, which, not long before his death, were revised and arranged by his pupil Rink. They were published in 1803 under the title Immanuel Kant über Pädagogik." It is a comparatively brief treatise, covering only seventy pages of Kant's collective works, in which it is now included.

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