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served in several educational and ecclesiastical commissions; promoted the ap-
pointment of good men to office; became involved in the civil and theological
troubles of his times; and died in 1557, at an age when his country had most to
expect from his learning and experience. He was a great promoter of the study
of Greek, and its correct pronunciation, and labored with his friend, Sir Thomas
Smith to give prominence to the Saxon element in the English language, and to
rid its orthography of many of its anomalies. For this purpose he made a new
translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew, in which he strove to use only
English Saxon words. See Strype's Life of Sir J. Cheke.

(15.) JOHN STURM, or STURMIUS, was born at Schleiden, near Cologne,
was educated at Liege, Louvain and Paris, and for forty-five years was rector
of the gymnasium and college at Strasburg, which he established and made the
best classical school in Europe. He was much consulted in the drafting of
school-codes, and in the organization of gymnasia, and his "Plan for organizing
institutions of learning," his "Classic Letters," addressed to the teachers of his
own school, and his editions of classic authors, entitle him to a prominent place
in the history of "Pedagogics." Raumer, in his "History of the Science and Art
of Teaching," devotes a chapter to Sturm's system of education.

(16.) THEAGES is not considered by many scholars worthy of Plato, and its authorship is attributed to Antipater, the teacher of Panatius, and the disciple of Diogenes of Babylon.

Theages desired "to become a wise man," to the great trouble of his father, Demodocus, who resorts to Socrates for counsel. Socrates replies in the language of the proverb, applied to those who came to counsel the oracles Counsel, Demodocus, is said to be a sacred thing;" and then adds, "If then any other consultation is sacred, this is so, about which you are now considering. For there is not a thing, about which a person may consult, more divine than about the instruction of himself and of those related to him." After probing the young man by questions, Socrates concludes to receive him into his companionship.

(17.) Plato in the Dialogues on the Republic, exhibits the misery of man let loose from law, and a general plan for making him subject to law, as the sure way of perfecting his nature. In the seventh dialogue, from which Ascham quotes. Plato unfolds the province of a good early education, in turning the eyes of the mind from the darkness and uncertainty of popular opinion, to the clear light of truth, and points out some of the uses of mathematics and gymnastics, in quickening and enlarging the apprehension, and inuring to intense application. In this connection he asserts:

"Every thing then relating to arithmetic and geometry, and all the previous instruction which they should receive before they learn dialectics, ought to be set before them while they are children, and on such a plan of teaching, that they may learn without compulsion. Why so? Because, said I, a free man ought to acquire no training under slavery; for the labors of the body when endured through compulsion do not at all deteriorate the body; but for the soul, it can endure no compulsory discipline. True, said he. Do not then, said I, my best of friends, force boys to their learning; but train them up by amusement, that you may be better able to discern the character of each one's genius."

This, too, was the doctrine of Quintilian, in Inst. Lib. 1. c. 1, 20:-Nam id in primis cavere oportebit, ne studia, qui amare nondum potest, oderit et amaritudinem semel perceptam etiam ultra rudes annos reformidet.

D

IX. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF JOHN STURM.

FROM THE GERMAN OF KARL VON RAUMER.*

JOHN STURM, or Sturmius, as his name was latinized, one of the best classical scholars and school teachers of his time, was born at Schleiden, in the Eiffel, near Cologne, in 1507. His father was steward to Count Manderscheid, with whose sons the young John was educated until his fourteenth year, when he went to the school of the Hieronymians at Liege, and hence, in 1524, to the University of Louvain, where he spent three years in studying, and two more in teaching. Of his parents and early teachers he ever spoke with gratitude and veneration, and his mother he characterizes as a "superior woman." Among his fellow-students was Sleidanus, the historian, and Andreas Bersalius, the anatomist.

In connection with Rudiger Rescius, the professor of Greek at Louvain, Sturm established a printing press, from which Homer and other Greek and Roman classics were issued. With copies of these books for sale, and for use by students, he removed to Paris, in 1529, where he studied medicine, read public lectures on logic, and the Greek and Roman classics, got married, and had private scholars from Germany, England, and Italy. Here he established a high reputation as a scholar and teacher, and corresponded with Erasmus, Melancthon, Bucer, and others. Such was his reputation as a classical scholar and teacher that, when the magistrates of the city of Strasburg decided

*Geschichte der Pädagogik. The biographical portion of Von Raumer's chapter is abridged, and that portion which treats of the theological controversies of the times, and particularly of the differences between the German, and the Swiss, and French reformers, with the former of whom Sturm sympathized, and to some extent coöperated, is altogether omitted. Sturm was avowedly a Lutheran, and the Calvinist charged him with absenting himself from the communion table and from church for twenty years.

The Hieronymians were a regular order of canons, or clergy, employed in teaching, founded by Gerhard Grovte, in 1373. They wore a white dress, with black scapula, and were most numerous and efficient in the Netherlands, where they originated. They were also known as Hieronymites, Hermits of St. Hieronymus, Collatian Brothers, Gregorians, or Brethren of Good Will. The instruction in their schools was partly elementary and partly classical. Their scholars learned to copy MSS., to read and write, were diligently drilled in speaking Latin, and in the study of the Scriptures, the Fathers, and a few of the classics, especially Cicero. See Raumer, Hist. of Ped., Vol. 1, p. 64: Cramer, Hist. of Ed. in the Netherlands, p. 260, et seq. It was at Liege, from the Hieronymians, that Sturm received the educational principle which he afterward embodied in his own school at Strasburg, "Pietas sapiens et eloquens est finis studiorum."

A theological school was proposed in 1501, but not established till 1531. In 1524, a number

to establish a gymnasium, he was earnestly solicited to organize and conduct it as Rector. He accordingly, in 1537, removed to that city, where he labored for forty-five years as a teacher, and, by his example, correspondence and publications, was greatly influential in introducing a better organization and methods of instruction into the schools of Europe. His plan of organizing a gymnasium or classical school was drawn up in 1538, and published under the title of "The best mode of opening institutions of learning." The development of this plan was exhibited in Letters which he addressed to the teachers of the various classes of his Gymnasium, in 1565, and in an account of the examination of the school, published in 1578.

On the 7th of December, 1581, by a decree of the city council, Sturm was deposed from the Rectorate, "on account of his advanced age, and for other reasons," viz.: publishing a pamphlet, in which he opposed the dominant religious majority in some of the theological disputes of the day. He was soon after attacked with blindness, and, worn out by the labors of a toilsome life, and weakened by age, and pinched by poverty incurred by his generosity to those who fled to him from persecution, he died in 1589, in the eighty-second year of his age, and was buried in the church-yard of St. Gallus, in Strasburg.

Sturm was a man of medium size, dark and ruddy complexion, firm features, long beard, clear and well-modulated voice, honorable presence, and a somewhat slow gait. He was amiable and dignified, in conversation earnest and courteous, in action decided and prompt, and industrious both in his public and private relations. He was ever keeping pace with those about him, learning Hebrew, for instance, in his fifty-ninth year, and inspiring his teachers with his own enthusiasm. He enjoyed the respect of the emperors Charles V., Ferdinand I., and Maximilian II., as well as of Queen Elizabeth, of England. His fame as a teacher and educator was European, and his school was a Normal School of classical instruction. His pupils were among the "men of mark" throughout Germany. At one time there were two hundred noblemen, twenty-four counts and barons, and three princes under his instruction; and, besides organizing directly many classical schools, his pupils rose to be head-masters of many more, and his principles were embodied in the School Code of Wurtemberg in 1559, and in that of Saxony in 1580, and in the educational system of the Jesuits.

of elementary schools were instituted, which were placed under the direction of school inspectors, of whom the preacher, James Sturm, was one, and through whose influence John Sturm was induced to remove to Strasburg. The gymnasium organized in 1537 was endowed with the privileges of a College, in 1567, by Emperor Maximilian II., and John Sturm was appointed its Rector in perpetuo.

STURM'S SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION.

Whoever clearly conceives a distinct object of pursuit, and brings perseverance, intelligence and tact to bear upon its attainment, will be sure, at least, to do something worthy of note; and especially so, when, at the same time, he falls in with the tendency and the sentiments of the age in which he lives. This is, above all, true of school reformers. If they know not what they would have, if they have no definite aim in view, it is impossible for us to speak with any propriety of the methods which they may have taken to reach their aim. Their course is wavering and uncertain, and they inspire distrust instead of confidence. But Sturm was no wavering, undecided, purposeless man. With firm step he advanced toward the realization of a definitely conceived ideal; an ideal, too, which, in greater or less distinctness, floated before the minds of most of his contemporaries, and which was regarded by them as the highest aim of mental culture. Hence, he enjoyed a widely extended and an unquestioning confidence. This, his ideal, Sturm has defined for us in numerous passages; and it is our first duty to examine it, if we wish to judge of his method.

"The end to be accomplished by teaching," says he, "is three-fold; embracing piety, knowledge and the art of speaking." In another place, he expresses himself thus; "A wise and persuasive piety should be the aim of our studies. But, were all pious, then the student should be distinguished from him who is unlettered, by scientific culture and by eloquence, (ratione et oratione.) Hence, knowledge, and purity and elegance of diction, should become the aim of scholarship, and toward its attainment both teachers and pupils should sedulously bend their every effort." What description of knowledge, and what species of eloquence Sturm had in view, we shall now proceed to inquire.

The boy should be sent to school,-so he insists,-in his sixth or seventh year. His school education proper should occupy nine years, or until he is sixteen; it should then be succeeded by a more independent style of culture. Lectures should be substituted for recitation, and that for five years, or until he is in his twenty-first year.

The Gymnasium included nine classes, corresponding with the nine years that the pupil was to spend there. Seven of these years Sturm assigned to a thorough mastery of pure, idiomatic Latin; the two that remained were devoted to the acquisition of an elegant style; and to learn to speak with the utmost readiness and propriety, was the problem of the five collegiate years. During the first seven years

of the child's life, he was to be left in the care of his mother. Every year the scholars in the lower classes were to be promoted, each into the next higher class, and premiums were to be awarded to the two best scholars in each class.

Thus, Sturm expressed himself, in 1537, in the "Plan," on which he organized his school, in which, he gives a full sketch of the course of study to be pursued by each class. And, the arrangement, thus previously indicated, was essentially the same after the lapse of twentyseven years, save that the Gymnasium then embraced ten classes, instead of nine. This appears from the "Classic Letters" which, in 1565, Sturm wrote to the teachers of the various classes. Forty years after the foundation of the Gymnasium, in 1578, a general examination took place, the particulars of which were recorded with the faithful minuteness of a protocol. And this, again, as well as the "Classic Letters," harmonizes, in the main, with Sturm's original plan of instruction. And, in all this, the observation forces itself upon us that, as he proposed to himself a well-marked and distinct aim at the outset of his career, so he advanced toward that aim through all those long years with an iron will and a steady step.

I will now give Sturm's course of instruction in detail, on the authority chiefly of the report above mentioned of the examination of the school, and of the "Classic Letters." We will commence, following the order of the "Letters," with the exercises of the tenth or lowest class, and so proceed to the first.

TENTH CLASS.-To Frisius, the teacher of this class, Sturm writes, "That he is to lay the foundation; to teach the children the form and the correct pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet, and, after that, reading; which will be better expedited by learning Latin declensions and conjugations than by the use of the catechism. The German catechism must be committed to memory, for the Latin would be a mere matter of rote. The love of the children will reward him for his pains; as he himself (Sturm) can testify from his own grateful recollections of his earliest teachers. At the examination, (in 1578,) the first scholar in the ninth class put the following questions to the first scholar in the tenth.

Q. What have you learned in the tenth class?

A. Letters, spelling, reading and writing, all the paradigms of nouns and verbs, and the German catechism likewise.

Q. Read me something from the Neanisci of our Rector.

A. An tu non es Lucius socius studiorum meorum, qui modo a me e foro discesseras?

Q. What is the meaning of socius?

A. A companion.

Q. Decline socius.

A. Socius, socii, socio, etc.

Q. What is the meaning of discrdo?