(ilkc Qiiiirterli} Journal of (Eiutcaiion.
THE HISTOEY OF PEDAGOGICS.*
Children have presumably existed from the earliest ages; but ascience of education is of later growth. The earliest education isthat of the family; the child must be trained not to interfere withhis parents’ convenience, and to acquire those little arts which willhelp in maintaining the economy of the household. It was longbefore any attempt was made to improve generations as they succeededeach other. The earliest schools were those of priests. As soon asan educated priesthood had taken the place of the divines and jugglerswho abused the credulity and superstition of the earliest races, schoolsof the prophets became a necessity. The training required for cere-monials, the common life apart from the family, the accomplishmentsof reading and singing afforded a nucleus for the organization ofculture, and an opportunity for the efforts of a philosopher in advanceof his age. Convenience and gratitude confirmed the monopoly of theclergy. The schools of Egypt and Judsea were ecclesiastical. Thiswas not the case when the priesthood did not exist as a separate body.At Eome, until Greece took her conqueror captive, a child was trainedfor life in the Forum and the Senate House. Greece developed early ascience of psedagogics distinct from ecclesiastical training. Music andgymnastics moulded the body and the emotions of their boys—dialecticstrained their minds. Taught to develop their almost faultless forms byathletic exercises, they tuned their souls to harmony by art andmelody, while they were encouraged to seek their highest trainingin the most free discussion. Athenian boys, while waiting for then-innings, or resting after a hard row, discoursed with the masters whohad come to watch them on the good, the beautiful, and the true.The lowest efforts of their tutors were to teach them to maintain anyview they might adopt with acuteness, readiness, eloquence, and goodtaste. Their highest efforts were to stimulate a craving for knowledge ofthe unknowable, to rouse a dissatisfaction with received definitions andopinions, to excite a curiosity which grew stronger with the revelationot each successive mystery. The Athenians were, on the whole, thecleverest and best educated people the world had ever seen. Their
* A lecture delivered before the Ascham Society, by Oscar Browning , M.A.,Assistant MaBter, j£tou College.
1