Fenelon said: "We have seen him ask to be read to during his meals and when rising in the morning, so dearly did he love everything he needed to know, and I have never seen a child listen so early and with so much delicacy to the finest things in poetry and eloquence." But if only praise was deserved for the literary tastes of the prince it was otherwise with what might be called his political and religious education. Fenelon was himself uneasy at the excessive devotion of his pupil, and a little sad when he was pleased with himself. Having become, as it were, honorary preceptor of the prince, who had faithfully preserved a filial affection toward him, in spite of his disgrace and exile, he wrote to him at the date of September 21, 1708: "As to your piety, if you wish to do honor to it, you cannot be too careful to make it gentle, convenient, social. You must be 'all things to all men.'" And again : "A prince cannot regulate men at court or in the army, like monks. . I pray God every day that the spirit of liberty may enlarge your heart more and more in order to accommodate yourself to the needs of the multitude." But does not Fenelon here combat an evil which he should have partly blamed himself for? Was it not he who cast into a soul, too well prepared to receive them, the seeds of that mysticism which now made him afraid? In the memorial he composed upon the measures to be taken after the death of the duke of Burgundy, Fenelon declares to be necessary, "that the preceptor of the prince should be an ecclesiastic." Yet his own experience ought to have revealed to him the unsuitableness of a princely education confided to priests. Excessive pre-occupation with religious things is the inevitable danger of it, and the practical virtues, the active virtues of character, lose by it, in general, all that spirituality can gain by it. But let us render this justice to Fenelon, that in his correspondence with the duke of Burgundy, and also with the dukes of Beauvilliers and Chevreux, always remaining the mentor of his dear Telemachus, he struggled against the monastic tendencies of the prince. What beautiful lessons of royal wisdom, of devotion to man, of patriotism and philanthropy (the word is Fenelon's) does he not give him in Telemachus-a veritable treatise upon moral and political education!* Fenelon began with the fables, continued with the dialogues, ended with the epic; always *Genay, in his Etude morale et litteraire of Telemaque (1876), says the duke did not know till after his marriage, that Telemachus was written for him. faithful to the same system, and disguising morality in poetry! Wonderful morality, a little chimerical sometimes, but in every case appropriate to the manners of that time, and which, in the pompous and military court of Louis XIV, bursts upon us as the echo of another age, as the reverberation or announcement of an era of simplicity and peace. Agriculture was celebrated in it with enthusiasm, the excess of luxury interdicted, the spirit of conquest forcibly condemned, absolute power pitilessly analyzed in its consequences, ambition and war reprobated. What matters it that some Utopias mingle with these eternal verities? In describing the republic of Salente, Fenelon proposed nothing less to his pupil than a general reform of the monarchy. Let us take notice that Fenelon, in the organization of instruction, shows himself to be a partisan of public education. "Children," he says, "belong less to their parents than to the republic, and ought to be brought up pupils of the state. Public schools must be established in which the fear of God, love of country, respect for the laws, preference of honor to pleasure and to life itself shall be taught." It is remarkable that the greatest theologians of the old monarchy recognized the right of the state to distribute instruction. St. Thomas professed this doctrine entirely, as the following passage proves : "Ad cum qui rempublicam regit pertinet ordinaire de nutritionibus et instructionibus juvenum, in quibus exerceri debeant, et quales disciplenas unusquisque addiscere et usque quo debeat." It is only on the day when the State freed itself from the tutelage of the Church, that the ecclesiastical doctors suddenly perceived in the law of the State a pretended usurpation over the rights of the family. So true is it, that even on the highest questions, interest is not a stranger to the establishment of principles ! To resume; whether the nature of his genius disposed him to it, or whether he was led to it by circumstances and by the character of his pupil, Fenelon was a master in the highest sense of the word. The Lettre à Innocent XI is hardly anything but a plan of secondary instruction. Bossuet thought of but a single thing, the instruction of the dauphin, and did not succeed in that. Fenelon, more happily, had to do with a living and active soul, a rich and distinguished mind, which it was necessary for him by turns to restrain, to excite, to instruct, and to elevate. It is the talents and also the vices of the pupil which alone give the educational qualities of a preceptor the opportunity to show themselves in all their brilliancy. But by the wonderful suppleness of his genius, Fenelon was a man to triumph over all the difficulties of a princely education, terrible difficulties, which we find forcibly expressed in a brilliant passage, although a little declamatory, of a writer (Diderot) of the eighteenth century. "It is not without terror that a man enters upon such a ministry when he is worthy of it. What a frightful responsibility, indeed, to have to answer to millions of men for the virtue of one! but of one whose caprice may influence the fate of all, of one whose vice may overturn empires, whose faults make blood flow in streams, whose caprice may agitate the world. With what an eye could M. de Cambray behold that multitude of absurditi s which are judged to be indispensable, of grave minutiæ, but established and consecrated as the basis of the education of princes, yet militating in concert for their corruption, and which, if we were not Frenchmen, would make us believe a miracle' rather than in the goodness of a king who was born a king! To what a monstrous blindness are those unfortunates reserved who open their eyes only to contemplate an idolatrous worship of their persons; children who, as soon as they see, see men prostrate before them, that is to say, the humiliation of all strength before all weakness! O princes, unfortunate in being such, who are born in pride, grow up in falsehood, live in adulation and omnipotence, how necessary it is that you should be born good in order not to be the most wicked of men!" Note. CARDINAL BAUSSET, in his Life of Fenelon, thus describes the crucial test of the teacher's authority with his pupil, even though the pupil was the eldest son of the King, and the heir apparent of sovereign power. The young prince replied, "No, no, M. Fenelon, I know who I am and who you are." Fenelon, faithful to the maxims he had himself taught in his treatise upon education, answered not a word; he felt that the moment had not come, and that in the state of mind of the duke he would not be listened to. He contented himself with showing by his serious and sad manner that he felt deeply wounded. He scarcely spoke to him the rest of the day, wishing to prepare him by this separation from him for the effect of the scene he meditated, and which he wished to make sufficiently imposing upon the young prince never to be forgotten. The next morning, when his pupil was just awake, Fenelon entered his apartment; he did not wish to wait for the usual hour of his studies, that what he meant to say should make the greater impression, and strike his imagination the more powerfully. Addressing him with cold and respectful gravity, very different from his usual manner, he said to him, “I do not know, monsieur, whether you remember what you said to me yesterday, that you knew who you were and who I am. It is my duty to tell you that you are ignorant of both. You imagine yourself to be something more than I am; some of your valets, doubtless, have told you so, and I am not afraid to say to you, since you force me to it, that I am more than you. You understand very well that it is not a question of birth. You would look upon any one as a fool who would pretend to make it a merit that the rain of heaven had fertilized his harvest without watering that of his neighbor. You would be no wiser than he, if you would be vain of your birth, which adds nothing to your personal merit. You cannot doubt that I am superior to you in letters and knowledge. You do not know anything but what I have taught you, and what I have taught you is nothing in comparison to what still remains for me to teach you. As to authority, you have none over me, and I, on the contrary, have full and entire authority over you. The king, and monseigneur, your father, have often told you so. You think, perhaps, that I esteem myself very happy to be provided with the employment I exercise over you; disabuse yourself of that idea, monsieur, I undertook it only to obey the king and to please monseigneur, and not for the painful advantage of being your preceptor, and that you may not doubt this, I am going to take you to his majesty and beg him to name another person whose care may be more successful than mine." The duke, whom the dry and cold manner of his preceptor since the scene of the evening before, and the reflections of the whole night passed in regret and anxiety had overwhelmed with grief, was thunderstruck by this declaration. He loved Fenelon with all the tenderness of a son, and besides this, his self-love and a delicate sensitiveness to public opinion had already made him aware of all that would be thought of him if an instructor like Fenelon saw himself reduced to the necessity of giving up his education. Tears, sighs, fear, and shame scarcely enabled him to pronounce these words, interrupted again and again by his sobs, "Oh, monsieur, I am desperate at what passed yesterday; if you speak to the king you will will make me lose his friendship; if you abandon me, what will people think of me? I promise you-I promise you that you shall be satisfied with me-but promise me." Fenelon would promise nothing; he left him a whole day uneasy and in uncertainty. It was only when he felt convinced of the sincerity of his repentance that he appeared to yield to his renewed supplications, and to the entreat- . ies of Madame de Maintenon, who had been induced to take part in the affair to give it more effect. It was by such happy combination of means, and by continual repetition and observation, patience and care, that Fenelon succeeded in breaking up by degrees the violence of his pupil's passions. It was to this object that he and M. de Beauvilliers, his domestic governor, had directed all their cares and efforts, and both reaped their reward in success. Of all the princes who were least flattered by their instructors and to whom were spoken the most severe truths in his childhood and youth, he is the one who preserved the tenderest gratitude for the virtuous man who had presided over his education. We know nothing in the records of Pedagogy more instructive than Fenelon's dealing with his princely pupil, after he fell under the suspicion and displeasure of the court. KINDERGARTEN AND CHILD CULTURE: Contributions to the Advancement of the Kindergarten and of Principles and Methods of Child Culture. Edited by Henry Barnard, LL. D. 720 pp. Price $3.50. To Subscribers prior to July 1, 1880, the Price will be $2.50. ADDRESS BEFORE THE AMERICAN FROEBEL UNION, Book of the Law-Moses and the Prophets as Educators, The Child-Nurture and Admonition of the Lord, Practice at Athens and Sparta-Views of Plato, Plutarch, &c., Gradual Development of Modern Pedagogy, as to young children, Abbe de la Salle-Port Royalist-Rousseau, Pestalozzi and other Swiss Educators-Fellenberg-Wehrli, Modifications in French, English and American Methods, Relation to the then Existing Systems of Child-Culture, IV. Froebel and his Educational Work, 1. Memoir-Birth and Education-Diversified Activity, 2. Educational Work-Experience in Teaching, PAGE. 1 1-4 1 5-16 5 17-48 17 17 19 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 33 35 39 41 43 47 47 49-78 49 57 65 3. The Kindergarten-Its genesis in Frobel's Experience and Study, V. Contributions to the Spread of the Froebel Idea, I. THE CHILD AND CHILD-NATURE, by Baroness Marenholtz-Bulow, 3. GENERAL REQUISITES-FROEBEL'S THEORY OF EDUCATION, 7. THE MOTHER AND HER NURSERY SONGS, Abstract of Original Treatise with Extracts, III. FROEBEL'S SYSTEM AND THE DEMANDS OF THE AGE, 225-256 225 |