Fortunately,
too, this short book is sufficient to tell perhaps to go outside our duty—that of frontiers, helpful in defending the State,
but because they were poor, and because
all that we want to know about that estimating Dr.
too, this short book is sufficient to tell perhaps to go outside our duty—that of frontiers, helpful in defending the State,
but because they were poor, and because
all that we want to know about that estimating Dr.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
MoKILLIAM, M.
A.
lack flavour and distinction, but much profit- somewhat emphasized a caricature already “The short biographies of the different Popes have been
able labour has been expended on them. apparent. Mr. Penna gave a forcible repre- prepared with evident care, and to students of history this
The verse is inclined to be more stilted than sentation of Peter Mortensgard. Miss
bandbook should be of much service. A well-compiled
index enhances the value of the volume as a book of
the prose, which is spirited. The translator Octavia Kenmore's Rebecca West, if wanting reference. " — Athenæum.
hardly possesses those qualities of idiomatic a little in elemental passion, was distinguished
nicety and delicacy which are requisite to by acute sincerity and sensibility. She used To be completed in 6 vols. demy 8vo, 106. Bd. net
pluck the finest flowers of Molière's genius. her voice with consummate art, and gave
each.
The four volumes are appropriately and taste- in a quiet way a deep impression of resource,
fully equipped, and the print is admirable. understanding, and the power and dignity
Vol. III. JUST PUBLISHED. Vols. I. and II.
There are condensed historical and ästhetic of love.
previously published.
criticisms as preludes to each volurne.
For many years in Italy it has been THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
Shakespeare, Tudor Edition : MUCH ADO Mr. Addison McLeod's hobby to note down
ABOUT NOTHING edited by William W. his impressions of the theatre while they JONATHAN SWIFT.
Lawrence; and THE TRAGEDY OF KING remained fresh in his mind. On this first-
Edited by F. ELRINGTON BALL, Litt. D.
LEAR, edited by Virginia C. Gildersleeve, hand material he has based his book entitled
1/ net each.
Macmillan • Plays and Players in Modern Italy, giving
With an Introduction by
The first of these little volumes is the his appreciations and criticisms of the The Right Rev. the BISHOP OF OSSORY.
better in its interpretation of the characters, classical and the dialectical schools, the types “For the first time we have the beginning of a complete
a point
of special importance surely in King of plays, and the personalities of the players, swift, arranged in chronological order
, printed from the
edition of the whole correspondence, both to and from
Lear. The notes are adequate, though, as
which is due from Messrs. Smith & Elder. best texts, and annotated with extreme elaboration,
usual, they seem to us to err on the side of The volume will contain fourteen half-tone Swift's letters have been often, but never well, edited
before this. . We congratulate Mr. Ball on an arduous
brevity. We are pleased to see a reference illustrations.
task faithfully executed, with a sure mastery of its
to Mr. Perrett's story of King Lear in
bewildering complexity. "— Times.
Palæstra, which, by the by, has appeared early publication a volume of plays by
MESSRS. DUCKWORTH & Co. announce for
as a separate publication.
August Strindberg. The volume will include JUST PUBLISHED. Medium 8vo, 108. 6d. net.
The Dream Play, "The Link,' and 'The
Dance of Death. The translation has been
PITT
made by Edwin Bjorkman, who had Strind-
AND NAPOLEON
Dramatic Gossip.
berg's authority to render the plays into
English. A biographical note and a full
Essays and Letters.
CELLE QU'ON ADORE,' by M. Acremant, bibliography will be included in the volume.
By Dr. J. HOLLAND ROSE,
which has been running at the Little
Reader in Modern History, University of
Theatre, is a genuinely amusing farce.
TO CORRESPONDENTS. -F. W. R. -E. P. -W. P. -C. B. -
Slight in construction, and with hardly
Received.
Cambridge.
H. F. J. -Many thanks.
anything approaching to a plot, it is, never-
No notice can be taken of anonymous communications.
theless, full of diverting incident and clever We cannot undertake to reply to inquiries concerning the
BELL'S CATHEDRAL SERIES.
dialogue. The play, which deals with the appearance of reviews of books.
backslidings of a moralist who falls in love We do not undertake to give the value of books, china,
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pictures, &c.
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gerously on the burlesque, and ends
panion to the cathedral tourist in England. ” – Times
Η Ε
unexpectedly in pathos. of the excellence T H E A TI E N Æ U M, Bangor-Bristol - Canterbury-Carlisle-Chester
of the acting it is difficult to speak in mea-
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sured terms. Mlle. Tellier rendered the
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chester-Norwich-Oxford-Peterborough-Ripon
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chester-Worcester-York,
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was largely due to her. M. Demorange was
very amusing as Stanislas, and M. Bouzin
ENGLISH CATHEDRALS: an Itinerary and
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Description.
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INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
The following uniform Volumes are also published,
18. 6d. net each,
ROSMERSHOLM,' given at the
Westminster Abbey-The Temple Church-St.
theatre on Tuesday last, is one of the most AUTHORS' AGENTS
Bartholomew's, Smithfield-St. Martin's Church,
attractive of Ibsen's plays, because of BELL & Sons
Canterbury Beverley Minster
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Priory and Wimborne Abbey – Bath Abbey
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Malmesbury Abbey, and Bradford - on A FOR
salient aspects of Ibsen's drama is its EXHIBITIONS
Church.
capacity for titillating conjecture and
,
GAY & HANCOCK
analysis of the social fabric and the founda- Long
tions on which it is laid. Interpretations LYNWOOD & Co.
BELL'S HANDBOOKS TO
manufactured out of 'Rosmersholm' are
MACMILLAN & Co.
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612 CONTINENTAL
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“Hedda Gabler,' Ghosts,' and The Wild
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NOTES AND QUERIES
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PRINTERS . .
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subtle and pungent study of neurosis and
Chartres : The Cathedral, and other Churches.
the destructive contagion of its effects upon
Rouen : The Cathedral,
and other Churches.
genuine and virile personality. The hideous
Amiens: The Cathedral, and other Churches.
sacrifice that Rosmer demands of Rebecca SOCIETIES . .
SITUATIONS VACANT
Paris : Notre Dame-Mont 8. Michel-Bayou.
and the dolorous finale are otherwise not TYPE-WRITERS, &c.
609
tragic, but outrageously repulsive. As it WARD, LOCK & Co.
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York House, Portugal Street, London, W. C.
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-
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PAGE
Churches of
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610
632
635
610
609
809
612
636
612
. .
. .
CHURCHES.
?
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611
610
634
610
609
610
835
609
SALES BY AUCTION
SHIPPING
610
683
. .
## p. 643 (#481) ############################################
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
643
PAGE
643
a
SWIFT'S CORRESPONDENCE
644
645
645
646
647
648
THE GREAT STATE
--Fic-
649–653
AVESTA; SOME IMPORTANT FORTHCOMING BOOKS
654655
LITERARY GOSSIP
657—659
ENGLISH FURNITURE OF THE EIGH-
GIOJELLI
659-662
DELLA
663-664
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
664
the matter. Fluency, elegance, resonance
old classical world. The cases of Greece
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1912. of diction, were the vital objects of this
and Rome were very
very different ;
different; the
training; hence it has failed to produce apparent likenesses but small. Yet in
CONTENTS.
much effect, even literary, upon the world. both there is the great unmistakable fact
LIFE AND LITERATURE IN GREECE AND ROME (The
What should we think now of the amazing - decadence from within, followed by
Universities of Ancient Greece; The Common feat of Proæresius, a famous sophist who external shocks which the stagnant or
People of Ancient Rome ; Society and Politics in
Ancient Rome)
was called upon by way of trial, suddenly, effete society could not resist. In the case
EDUCATION AS Philosophy (The Evolution of Edü.
to give an extempore discourse on a of Greece it was the intellectual primacy
cational Theory)
THE MONTESSORI METHOD ::
difficult subject, deliberately selected by of the world which the sophists laboured
THE ROADS OF IRELAND (My Irish Year)
his opponents? He called two shorthand to maintain. It was like a beautiful
writers up to him and began rolling out his woman, whose charms have once domin-
ANOR VINCIT
discourse at a great pace, but after a long ated the world, striving to stave off the
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS (Theology-Law-Poetry-
Bibliography, 649; Philosopby-History and Bio- time halted, and challenged the short trespass of old age by paint and powder,
graphy, 650, Geography and Travel-Sociology-
hand writers to follow him while he by splendid silks and brocades that pro-
Education School Books, 651; Juvenile
tion-General, 652; Foreign, 653)
delivered the oration from the beginning fess to maintain the glory and the freshness
THE ODYSSEY'CUNNINGHAM'S EXTRACTS FROM
THE REVELS' BOOKS; THE ANTIQUITY OF THE
over again word for word, as he had of a vanished youth. But the art of the
already spoken it. Upon this the whole
Upon this the whole tirewoman, however deft and carefully
656 audience, Roman governor and all, went acquired, has never yet succeeded in
SCIENCE--DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM; THE
mad with excitement, prostrated them- making age equal to youth. So the
ORIGIN OF EARTHQUAKES; ROCKS AND THEIR
ORIGINS ; NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS; SOCIETIES ; selves before him as a god, and the rivals famous universities of Athens and Antioch
MEETINGS NEXT WEEK; GOSSIP
FINE ARTS –
were struck as by a bolt from Heaven ! were only able to adorn a feeble and worn-
TEENTH CENTURY; NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS; Was there ever a more lamentable display out civilization-a gilded halo hovering
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH LANDSCAPE ; OTHER EX.
HIBITIONS; MINIATURES AT BRUSSELS; GOSSIP of decadence? What did this wonderful round decay.
MUSIC – WOLF. FERRARI's 'I
personage, who led the education at Mr. Abbott treats not of Greece, but
MADONNA'; GOSSIP; PERFORMANCES NEXT WEEK 663 Athens till he was 92, leave for posterity of Rome-not of the aristocracy, social or
DRAMA-THE IRISH PLAYERS; GOSSIP
And so we may say of the rest of them, intellectual, but of the common people,
whom Dr. Walden, with the enthusiasm yet at the bottom of it all we come
of a specialist, holds up to our admiration upon the same lamentable phenomenon-
-Eunopius, Libanius, Synesius, et hoc decadence! Why did a great society,
genus omne, what have they left to the controlled by enlightened rulers, full of
LITERATURE
modern world? What did Greek lite- wealth and public spirit, full of large gifts
rature accomplish under Trajan, Hadrian, from the rich to the poor-why did all this
and the earlier Antonines, when the splendid fabric, which under the early
Greek world was at peace and flourishing? Antonines had brought the ancient world
LIFE AND LITERATURE IN GREECE There is, of course, the incomparable to an almost ideal pitch of happiness and
Plutarch, who came before the full bloom comfort, collapse, not from the force of
AND ROME.
of sophistry, though not untinged by it; external violence, but from slow internal
there is the picture of rural simplicity decay? One of the main causes-nay,
The first book in our list consists of and virtue in Dion Chrysostom's seventh perhaps the main cause, according to
public lectures delivered by a dis-
oration, which should be familiar to every
Mr. Abbott's showing-was“ paternalism
tinguished Harvard man. The standard Hellenist; and there is the anonymous in government. ” He tells us correctly
of such lectures is very high;, they " Daphnis and Chloe,' a chef - d'oeuvre in
are delivered by the best men, and those its way.
that the first downward step was the
granting of land to poor citizens, not
now before us will hold a foremost place
But to discuss Greek decadence is to make them sturdy settlers on the
among such productions.
Fortunately,
too, this short book is sufficient to tell perhaps to go outside our duty—that of frontiers, helpful in defending the State,
but because they were poor, and because
all that we want to know about that estimating Dr. Walden's work. We can
if so endowed they would have political
later Greek education which has suffered. speak of it very highly. We think that in
not perhaps undeservedly, from its title of defending his use of the word “univer- power. This power their leaders, who
were at first great aristocrats, hoped to use
sophistry - once a term of high honour and’Antioch,
he would have made his case against their own class, just as the early
sity," as applied to the education of Athens
and importance.
read carefully the author's able and stronger if he had compared these schools Greek tyrants had done. The next point
sympathetic analysis of this sophistry not with modern, but with mediæval was to provide this land, not from new
(pp: 202–18), he will probably feel that, universities. For there, too, we find the conquests, but by claiming that the great
ranches of the rich were not fee-simple
if this passage opened the book, many master, the spoken word, the “ nations,
which were
a reader would lay it aside at once.
estates, but tenantries from the State,
With all the splendid lists of subjects, of describes. Probably in the present day which could resume them. This was
aptitudes, of training, of pretension to
the university in the old world most technically true, but practically a revolu-
tion in the tenure of the land. Then came
educate the finest possible citizen for the like that of Athens is the Mosque El-
State, we must remember that under the Azhar at Cairo. But to develope this
But to develope this the time when the mob of Rome, who
Roman sway there was no “State" for parallel would require too long an argu- could not get, or would not take, land,
the Greek citizen to represent; there were
ment. We wish that in speaking of the were to be fed by the State, and if
no great political occasions on which florid style of Greek oratory he had called people could look to the Government
a new Demosthenes could exercise his it by the usual term Asianic, not Asiatic, for the necessities of life, why might they
influence. The end which resulted was
as the latter suggests wrong associations not hope to have it supply their lesser
the clever stringing together of words, lectures may be recommended as the fullest of games and theatrical amusements and
of ideas ; but these are only trifles. His needs ? ” Presents of oil and clothing,
in which the form wholly outweighed and best account of the history of educa- baths, followed.
The Universities of Ancient Greece. By tion in Græco-Roman times which we
“ As the Government and wealthy citizens
John W. H. Walden. (Routledge & Sons. ) know in English.
assumed a larger measure of responsibility
The Common People of Ancient Rome :
Turning now to the two studies for the welfare of the citizens, the people
Studies of Roman Life and Literature. on Roman history, we find a curious became more and more dependent on them,
By Frank Frost Abbott. (Same pub general likeness between them and the
and less capable of managing their own
affairs. An indication of it we see in the
lishers. )
book just noticed. The most solid profit
decline of local self-government, and the
Society and Politics in Ancient Rome : the modern reader can draw from them
Essays and Sketches. (Same author and
assumption by the central administration of
is the study of the causes which produced, responsibility for the conduct of public
publishers. )
or which exhibited, the decadence of the Affairs in the towns of Italy. ”
## p. 644 (#482) ############################################
644
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
a
error
This the author calls the growth of
the technique of the classics, for it looked
paternalism in Rome, and gives us very EDUCATION AS PHILOSOPHY. on childhood as a necessary, but regrettable
pregnant suggestions on the writing of
waste of time. Or on another theory,
To include book
its history and development. We trust
the theory of
upon
the classical ages were the youth of the
he will find time to do it himself. A further education in a serial history of philosophy world ; like goes to like, therefore little
is no doubt defensible, though no defence boys should learn mensa and profit by
step in this lamentable history was the
is offered. Certainly the possibility of those pure lyrics in praise of
despotic acts of Diocletian, who not only
laid down that people must not believe education implies a metaphysic, and our
fons and mons,
what he thought bad for them (. e. , Chris-
view of a particular system cannot be
Chalybs, hydrops, gryps, and pons,
tianity), but also that they must not pay independent of our notions of world-
tianity), but also that they must not pay structure in general. But that does not
et hoc genus omne.
But “our understandings are not all
all the articles of common life. This justify a bare assumption of the right to
existence. After reading Prof. Adams we
to be built by the square of Greece and
Mr. Abbott has expounded in a most
interesting essay on Diocletian's edict,
are reconciled, though we cannot forget, Rome," so Naturalism with its noble
and the extant lists of prices laid down to take a single example, that educational savage, the Idealism of Froebel and
by him. But, though death was the is far below political philosophy in order Pestalozzi with its plant, and all the
penalty appointed for violations of the and articulate development. A little rele- other systems follow one another, showing
law, and much blood (according to Lac-
vant psychology and some more or less at least that the history of educational
tantius) was shed in enforcing it, it relevant theorizing come from school theory is the history of metaphor. Dr.
came to naught. The cost of living masters and others, but there are no Montessori's original system we notice in
cannot be controlled in this way by any ruler's deposition was once coloured by
Bastilles in the history of education. A the next article.
But there is no need to analyze more
paternal despots. The whole process, the plea that he hath broken the social fully what can be read with pleasure by
deavouring to violate a great natural law. compact,” but “educands” seldom rise any one who takes a little trouble. We
If the poor, whether deserving or not, up against the tyranny of their elders, may mention an interesting discussion of
specific education, as in our English
if the idle, if the incompetent, are all to be crying, “ Pedagogues to the lantern! ”
made comfortable, it can only be at the
Having struck our blow against the in- public schools, where the aim is definitely
truder in the domain of philosophy, we
to produce a Christian gentleman, and
cost of the labour of the better citizen, and, admit that Prof. Adams does not fail to its relation to specialization, though
when this labour is so misemployed, it soon
special-
show in concrete cases the intimate relation between specific education and
begins to diminish, and national poverty of educational theory to other kinds of ization at long range. ”. the
distinction
necessarily supervenes. This was the great
seems to wear a little thin. These philo-
financial crisis from which the Roman speculation. Not forgetting the
which Kant committed, after himself sophic refinements do, in fact, become
Empire could not recover.
warning others against it, we do not depressing, and we weary of a world where
This is only one of the many topics expect an actual scheme of values to be only the rules of the game restrain us
which Mr. Abbott has handled with insight deduced from the voivaì ápxai of thought from knocking down the house of cards in
and care, making the life of the Roman But it is interesting to see how free-disgust. Even the distinction between
people, especially the common people, dom of the will is usually implied, education and life is in one aspect merely
live for us with great freshness. We
how original sin appears in the notion
a concession to utility. We feel that
seldom find anything in his clear and that it is easy to educate for evil, as though while we are capable of learning, educa-
lively exposition to criticize. But we
any one could be made a villain, and a tion is going on, and the educator and
will remind him that it is a mistranslation weakling could rise to high altitudes educand may be one.
This is the nega--
of Quintilian to make him say that of misbehaviour. Environment and con- tion of the pedagogic spirit. Goethe, as
satire was the only purely Roman form sciousness concern education, as well as
Prof. Adams says, had as little of that
of literature. . . Quintilian knew as well as being the battle-fields of philosophy, and spirit as falls to the lot of man,” though
Horace that the Greeks had written satire
we postulate progress, saying perhaps he used many of the ordinary relation-
from Archilochus down. What
Quin- with Kant that we should educate to a ships of life with a deliberate educa-
tilian did say was that the medley of prose standard a little in advance of actual tional bias. ” Here, at any rate, the
and verse
which the Romans called needs, so that the “educand ” shall not be criticism of categories seems to fail us.
(lanx) satura was a purely Roman form, left behind. Or the notion of heredity Education for once is only an ardent and
and that is true. In thinking the real steps in, and we invest with an eye to penetrating desire to be in the fullest
istic novel Roman, surely Mr. Abbott has compound interest, until the transmission relation to experience. Anything short
not taken proper account of Lucius of of acquired characteristics is questioned ; of this seems almost inevitably tainted
Patræ, who wrote the original form of The then we become only life-tenants of this with the notion quoted by Prof. Adams
Golden Ass' (of Lucian and Apuleius), world on a lease which has no clause from a Bishop of London, who said that,
probably in Nero's days, and probably giving compensation for unexhausted im- whatever else it might mean, education
also in Greek. Nor does he know that
provements.
always implied in the last resort inter-
now have evidence of Greek prose
novels of adventure besides the Romance analogies and comparisons and
There can hardly be a limit to the communication between an inferior and
a superior mind. We must always be
of Ninus. ' A papyrus brought from the nexions which diligence could trace. Prof. judging and valuing, but the distinction
Fayyum some years ago, and printed first Adams finds even “ categories
categories ” of edu- of benefactor and beneficiary is not so
by the Academy of the Lincei, Rome, then cation—polarity (which covers subject precise as that. We should, indeed, be
in a more accurate form by Prof. Smyly and object), the organon (which covers out of patience with the whole business,
(Hermathena No. xxvii. , 1901), is of about matter and form), others concerned with if there were not a potent reason for
veloped. In discussing the history of the artificial as against natural, and many be only the
old faculty psychology in a new
the same time, and shows the genre fully de- specific as against general education, keeping it within the bounds of human
Roman alphabet Mr. Abbott should have
considered that such a letter as Q, coming most valuable in its historical chapters.
dress
s; nevertheless, we can quiet our
from the koph in the old Greek alphabet. The author's narrative is clear and pene- consciences a little by the reflection that
was also being used in current Greek trating; behind the exposition a pleasant the desire to educate must be in some
accounts as the symbol for 90, and in a form humour is only half concealed, and a
way connected with parenthood. There
closely resembling our q. Indeed, the Greek power of crisp phrasing gives the necessary is the spur of an innate desire; so we take
signs for numbers would have given him relief. We learn that Humanism natur- the defenceless young, and work out our
light on many points. It is worth while to ally used childhood as a time for learning energy on that material. Even then we
make suggestions to so able and learned
must remember that the child may be
a writer, and one who has mastered his The Evolution of Educational Theory. By unable to escape, but it can pray with
authorities so well.
John Adams. (Macmillan & Co. ) some effect to be delivered from its friends.
*
we
con-
more.
## p. 645 (#483) ############################################
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
645
THE ATHENÆUM
66
ance.
,
gogy as applied to Child Education
in tidy, little brooms sweep, dusters perform The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift,
D. D.
* The Children's Houses. ” By Maria children act, instead of seeing their
their duty: the great point is that the
Edited by F. Elrington Ball.
With an Introduction by the Right
Montessori
. With Additions and Re- elders acting on their behalf. There is
Rev. J. H. Bernard. Vol. III. (Bell
visions by the Author. Translated by practice in sitting, standing, moving
& Sons).
Anne E. George, with an Introduction about, taking up and setting down objects, DR. ELRINGTON BALL must be wearied of
by Prof. H. W. Holmes. (Heinemann. )
or passing them to one another. There
the monotonous chorus of eulogy which
The manner in which this volume is are conversations, the “ directress” inquir- greets each successive instalment of his
translated will, it is to be feared, some-ing about little failures and successes
monumental edition of Swift's Corre-
what retard that wide dissemination whether, for example, a child has managed spondence, and to please him we would
which is its due. Not that the version is to go upstairs without muddying the steps. willingly sing out of tune, if only he would
unfaithful ; its defect is that, in holding Exercises to develope co-ordinated move oblige us with a reasonable pretext. But
close to the Italian, it has not always got ments of the fingers. . . . prepare the chil- a careful examination of his third volume
so far as to be English. That, for instance, dren for the exercises of practical life, compels us to echo the note we have
which Miss George calls“ didactic ma- such as dressing and undressing them- twice sounded before. His editing, mas-
terial” is known to British teachers as selves. " The apparatus for this purpose terly from the first, only gains in its sure
“educational apparatus. " Pedagogic,” consists of wooden frames, each mounted and easy command of the immense store
again, is, in these islands, a word which with two pieces of cloth, or leather, to be of biographical and historical materials
has a highly specialized usage ; in her fastened or unfastened by means of the which he has collected from all available
pages, however, it appears with great buttons and buttonholes, hooks and sources, and his notes form an encyclo-
frequency, and in two cases out of three eyes, eyelets and lacings, or automatic pædia of accurate information on all
the correct equivalent would be “educa- fasteners. ” Graduated cubes, cylinders, persons and subjects connected with the
tional. ”
&c. , all so arranged that the child tests letters. It would need a microscopic eye
The book itself is of pregnant signific- its own achievement, lead the fingers, the to detect even trivial slips.
It brings into the most vital of eye, and the mind to distinguish size and
The present volume includes, from a
human callings a new and a truer vision : weight. The children learn to sort into literary point of view, the most brilliant
Dr. Maria Montessori entered upon the gradations cards wound with coloured period of Swift's correspondence. The
education of children with the training, silk; and to touch and recognize surfaces letters range from the beginning of 1718
not of a teacher, but of a physician; she and shapes. All these processes are in
came to the schoolroom from another the nature of games ; the aim of the years Swift was writing the Drapier's
province, and saw it as a traveller sees a teacher is to interfere as little as possible Letters' and `Gulliver's Travels,' and
foreign country. Her first pupils were and to speak no unnecessary word. Her had not yet given up visiting his friends
defective children, and instead of making function is to give pupils the names as they in London. His chief correspondents
need them ; but to avoid anything that were still Bolingbroke, Oxford and his son,
keep their education as close as possible may distract attention or confuse remem- Prior, and Arbuthnot; and he had begun
to normal life. For two years she spent brance. Power of discrimination is ac- that delightful intercourse with Pope and
eleven hours a day with these children, quired very early. “Children of three Gay which forms one of the happiest
and her great instrument in dealing with years are able to put all the tints (sixty- memories of a life not yet quite soured.
them was the absence of restraint. Under four] in gradation. '
He had begun, too, the interchange of
her guidance children from idiot asylums Writing and reading are taught by letters with a new friend, Dr. Sheridan,
learnt to
means of letters cut out in wood or card. in which irresponsible levity contrasted
“ read and write so well that I was able to
These the child applies to painted letters oddly with the sombre tone of his con-
present them at a public school for an of the same size ; he follows their shapes temporary publications. Stella was still
examination together with normal children. with his finger, and later with a little alive, near and dear, and the volume
And they passed the examination success- stick, acquiring the power, and even the includes the only letter from the Dean to
fully. ”
habit, of writing before he is aware that Miss Hester Johnson that has been
Onlookers marvelled how they came to do he can write. When, in a surprisingly preserved, after the unapproachable
80 well ; Dr. Montessori marvelled how short time, he begins to set down words Journal to Stella. ' Vanessa also was
the normal children did no better; and and sentences, he does so with unusual near, too near, till her death in 1723,
from that time she began to work out a ease and precision. Reading advances at and the twenty-one letters between her
scheme for the reasonable education of the same time and by the same methods, and Cadenus printed in this volume
the ordinary child.
the exercises being undertaken as the reveal a relation which is, pathetically
Her opportunity arrived when an Italian pupils grow ready for them. There is human.
society for the better housing of work- no debarring of children from the great These letters to and from Vanessa were
people asked her to organize the schools educational tool of reading. The pupils read all printed by Sir Walter Scott; and,
which they were establishing in their quickly and easily at an early age; most though Dr. Ball has not been able to add
buildings for the younger children of other children, not allowed to learn then, anything of great importance towards the
their tenants. She carried into her task do so at a later age slowly and painfully. solution of the problem which has baffled
that freshly beholding eye which is the Thus it is not surprising that pupils who so many students of Swift's character,
mark of genius. She perceived that to pass, at five years old, from ** The Chil- his admirably judicial examination of the
give lessons to children sitting fixed in dren's House” to the elementary school whole question in Appendix III. will be
rows at desks—“ like butterflies mounted are found ready to enter, not the first, but scanned with absorbing interest.
on pins ”—was not to educate them for the third, division. In school studies they sents a full account of the Vanhomrigh
a world of activities and actualities ; that are ahead, and have, in addition, learnt family, and many
details about that
such children were, in fact, prisoned and to speak properly, to be clean, orderly, worthy alderman to whom, as Lord
enslaved. In “ The Children's Houses and gentle, to know the names of shapes, Mayor of Dublin, the civic authority owes
there are no desks, no fixed seats, no en colours, and qualities, to observe, to draw, its famous SS gold chain and medal
forced attitudes. When the little creatures to mould in clay, and, above all, to be adorned by Roettier with the bust of
come in the morning, they are first independent agents—more, to be civilized William III. , still, we believe, worn by
inspected as to their cleanliness (that they citizens. For, in its essence, what Dr. the holder of the office without detriment
must be sent clean is one of the very few Montessori teaches is civilization. Two to his political views. Alderman Van-
rules); hands, faces, and teeth that fall generations of such training might create homrighwas a friend of Schomberg, and
below the standard must be washed by a new society formed of persons who had as Commissary-General of Ireland at-
their owners, under friendly guidance if developed their capacities of body and tended his camp at Lisburn. He did his
required. They themselves“ visit” the of mind easily and happily.
work so well that he was specially com-
>>
It pre-
## p. 646 (#484) ############################################
646
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
as
was
66
cer-
66
mended by Government, and became not a discovery could not fail to arouse in Stella
only M. P. for Londonderry, but also one is a strong argument for the theory of the THE ROADS OF IRELAND.
of the chief commissioners of Irish revenue.
lack flavour and distinction, but much profit- somewhat emphasized a caricature already “The short biographies of the different Popes have been
able labour has been expended on them. apparent. Mr. Penna gave a forcible repre- prepared with evident care, and to students of history this
The verse is inclined to be more stilted than sentation of Peter Mortensgard. Miss
bandbook should be of much service. A well-compiled
index enhances the value of the volume as a book of
the prose, which is spirited. The translator Octavia Kenmore's Rebecca West, if wanting reference. " — Athenæum.
hardly possesses those qualities of idiomatic a little in elemental passion, was distinguished
nicety and delicacy which are requisite to by acute sincerity and sensibility. She used To be completed in 6 vols. demy 8vo, 106. Bd. net
pluck the finest flowers of Molière's genius. her voice with consummate art, and gave
each.
The four volumes are appropriately and taste- in a quiet way a deep impression of resource,
fully equipped, and the print is admirable. understanding, and the power and dignity
Vol. III. JUST PUBLISHED. Vols. I. and II.
There are condensed historical and ästhetic of love.
previously published.
criticisms as preludes to each volurne.
For many years in Italy it has been THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
Shakespeare, Tudor Edition : MUCH ADO Mr. Addison McLeod's hobby to note down
ABOUT NOTHING edited by William W. his impressions of the theatre while they JONATHAN SWIFT.
Lawrence; and THE TRAGEDY OF KING remained fresh in his mind. On this first-
Edited by F. ELRINGTON BALL, Litt. D.
LEAR, edited by Virginia C. Gildersleeve, hand material he has based his book entitled
1/ net each.
Macmillan • Plays and Players in Modern Italy, giving
With an Introduction by
The first of these little volumes is the his appreciations and criticisms of the The Right Rev. the BISHOP OF OSSORY.
better in its interpretation of the characters, classical and the dialectical schools, the types “For the first time we have the beginning of a complete
a point
of special importance surely in King of plays, and the personalities of the players, swift, arranged in chronological order
, printed from the
edition of the whole correspondence, both to and from
Lear. The notes are adequate, though, as
which is due from Messrs. Smith & Elder. best texts, and annotated with extreme elaboration,
usual, they seem to us to err on the side of The volume will contain fourteen half-tone Swift's letters have been often, but never well, edited
before this. . We congratulate Mr. Ball on an arduous
brevity. We are pleased to see a reference illustrations.
task faithfully executed, with a sure mastery of its
to Mr. Perrett's story of King Lear in
bewildering complexity. "— Times.
Palæstra, which, by the by, has appeared early publication a volume of plays by
MESSRS. DUCKWORTH & Co. announce for
as a separate publication.
August Strindberg. The volume will include JUST PUBLISHED. Medium 8vo, 108. 6d. net.
The Dream Play, "The Link,' and 'The
Dance of Death. The translation has been
PITT
made by Edwin Bjorkman, who had Strind-
AND NAPOLEON
Dramatic Gossip.
berg's authority to render the plays into
English. A biographical note and a full
Essays and Letters.
CELLE QU'ON ADORE,' by M. Acremant, bibliography will be included in the volume.
By Dr. J. HOLLAND ROSE,
which has been running at the Little
Reader in Modern History, University of
Theatre, is a genuinely amusing farce.
TO CORRESPONDENTS. -F. W. R. -E. P. -W. P. -C. B. -
Slight in construction, and with hardly
Received.
Cambridge.
H. F. J. -Many thanks.
anything approaching to a plot, it is, never-
No notice can be taken of anonymous communications.
theless, full of diverting incident and clever We cannot undertake to reply to inquiries concerning the
BELL'S CATHEDRAL SERIES.
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Η Ε
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the destructive contagion of its effects upon
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636
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CHURCHES.
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## p. 643 (#481) ############################################
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THE ATHENÆUM
643
PAGE
643
a
SWIFT'S CORRESPONDENCE
644
645
645
646
647
648
THE GREAT STATE
--Fic-
649–653
AVESTA; SOME IMPORTANT FORTHCOMING BOOKS
654655
LITERARY GOSSIP
657—659
ENGLISH FURNITURE OF THE EIGH-
GIOJELLI
659-662
DELLA
663-664
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
664
the matter. Fluency, elegance, resonance
old classical world. The cases of Greece
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1912. of diction, were the vital objects of this
and Rome were very
very different ;
different; the
training; hence it has failed to produce apparent likenesses but small. Yet in
CONTENTS.
much effect, even literary, upon the world. both there is the great unmistakable fact
LIFE AND LITERATURE IN GREECE AND ROME (The
What should we think now of the amazing - decadence from within, followed by
Universities of Ancient Greece; The Common feat of Proæresius, a famous sophist who external shocks which the stagnant or
People of Ancient Rome ; Society and Politics in
Ancient Rome)
was called upon by way of trial, suddenly, effete society could not resist. In the case
EDUCATION AS Philosophy (The Evolution of Edü.
to give an extempore discourse on a of Greece it was the intellectual primacy
cational Theory)
THE MONTESSORI METHOD ::
difficult subject, deliberately selected by of the world which the sophists laboured
THE ROADS OF IRELAND (My Irish Year)
his opponents? He called two shorthand to maintain. It was like a beautiful
writers up to him and began rolling out his woman, whose charms have once domin-
ANOR VINCIT
discourse at a great pace, but after a long ated the world, striving to stave off the
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS (Theology-Law-Poetry-
Bibliography, 649; Philosopby-History and Bio- time halted, and challenged the short trespass of old age by paint and powder,
graphy, 650, Geography and Travel-Sociology-
hand writers to follow him while he by splendid silks and brocades that pro-
Education School Books, 651; Juvenile
tion-General, 652; Foreign, 653)
delivered the oration from the beginning fess to maintain the glory and the freshness
THE ODYSSEY'CUNNINGHAM'S EXTRACTS FROM
THE REVELS' BOOKS; THE ANTIQUITY OF THE
over again word for word, as he had of a vanished youth. But the art of the
already spoken it. Upon this the whole
Upon this the whole tirewoman, however deft and carefully
656 audience, Roman governor and all, went acquired, has never yet succeeded in
SCIENCE--DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM; THE
mad with excitement, prostrated them- making age equal to youth. So the
ORIGIN OF EARTHQUAKES; ROCKS AND THEIR
ORIGINS ; NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS; SOCIETIES ; selves before him as a god, and the rivals famous universities of Athens and Antioch
MEETINGS NEXT WEEK; GOSSIP
FINE ARTS –
were struck as by a bolt from Heaven ! were only able to adorn a feeble and worn-
TEENTH CENTURY; NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS; Was there ever a more lamentable display out civilization-a gilded halo hovering
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH LANDSCAPE ; OTHER EX.
HIBITIONS; MINIATURES AT BRUSSELS; GOSSIP of decadence? What did this wonderful round decay.
MUSIC – WOLF. FERRARI's 'I
personage, who led the education at Mr. Abbott treats not of Greece, but
MADONNA'; GOSSIP; PERFORMANCES NEXT WEEK 663 Athens till he was 92, leave for posterity of Rome-not of the aristocracy, social or
DRAMA-THE IRISH PLAYERS; GOSSIP
And so we may say of the rest of them, intellectual, but of the common people,
whom Dr. Walden, with the enthusiasm yet at the bottom of it all we come
of a specialist, holds up to our admiration upon the same lamentable phenomenon-
-Eunopius, Libanius, Synesius, et hoc decadence! Why did a great society,
genus omne, what have they left to the controlled by enlightened rulers, full of
LITERATURE
modern world? What did Greek lite- wealth and public spirit, full of large gifts
rature accomplish under Trajan, Hadrian, from the rich to the poor-why did all this
and the earlier Antonines, when the splendid fabric, which under the early
Greek world was at peace and flourishing? Antonines had brought the ancient world
LIFE AND LITERATURE IN GREECE There is, of course, the incomparable to an almost ideal pitch of happiness and
Plutarch, who came before the full bloom comfort, collapse, not from the force of
AND ROME.
of sophistry, though not untinged by it; external violence, but from slow internal
there is the picture of rural simplicity decay? One of the main causes-nay,
The first book in our list consists of and virtue in Dion Chrysostom's seventh perhaps the main cause, according to
public lectures delivered by a dis-
oration, which should be familiar to every
Mr. Abbott's showing-was“ paternalism
tinguished Harvard man. The standard Hellenist; and there is the anonymous in government. ” He tells us correctly
of such lectures is very high;, they " Daphnis and Chloe,' a chef - d'oeuvre in
are delivered by the best men, and those its way.
that the first downward step was the
granting of land to poor citizens, not
now before us will hold a foremost place
But to discuss Greek decadence is to make them sturdy settlers on the
among such productions.
Fortunately,
too, this short book is sufficient to tell perhaps to go outside our duty—that of frontiers, helpful in defending the State,
but because they were poor, and because
all that we want to know about that estimating Dr. Walden's work. We can
if so endowed they would have political
later Greek education which has suffered. speak of it very highly. We think that in
not perhaps undeservedly, from its title of defending his use of the word “univer- power. This power their leaders, who
were at first great aristocrats, hoped to use
sophistry - once a term of high honour and’Antioch,
he would have made his case against their own class, just as the early
sity," as applied to the education of Athens
and importance.
read carefully the author's able and stronger if he had compared these schools Greek tyrants had done. The next point
sympathetic analysis of this sophistry not with modern, but with mediæval was to provide this land, not from new
(pp: 202–18), he will probably feel that, universities. For there, too, we find the conquests, but by claiming that the great
ranches of the rich were not fee-simple
if this passage opened the book, many master, the spoken word, the “ nations,
which were
a reader would lay it aside at once.
estates, but tenantries from the State,
With all the splendid lists of subjects, of describes. Probably in the present day which could resume them. This was
aptitudes, of training, of pretension to
the university in the old world most technically true, but practically a revolu-
tion in the tenure of the land. Then came
educate the finest possible citizen for the like that of Athens is the Mosque El-
State, we must remember that under the Azhar at Cairo. But to develope this
But to develope this the time when the mob of Rome, who
Roman sway there was no “State" for parallel would require too long an argu- could not get, or would not take, land,
the Greek citizen to represent; there were
ment. We wish that in speaking of the were to be fed by the State, and if
no great political occasions on which florid style of Greek oratory he had called people could look to the Government
a new Demosthenes could exercise his it by the usual term Asianic, not Asiatic, for the necessities of life, why might they
influence. The end which resulted was
as the latter suggests wrong associations not hope to have it supply their lesser
the clever stringing together of words, lectures may be recommended as the fullest of games and theatrical amusements and
of ideas ; but these are only trifles. His needs ? ” Presents of oil and clothing,
in which the form wholly outweighed and best account of the history of educa- baths, followed.
The Universities of Ancient Greece. By tion in Græco-Roman times which we
“ As the Government and wealthy citizens
John W. H. Walden. (Routledge & Sons. ) know in English.
assumed a larger measure of responsibility
The Common People of Ancient Rome :
Turning now to the two studies for the welfare of the citizens, the people
Studies of Roman Life and Literature. on Roman history, we find a curious became more and more dependent on them,
By Frank Frost Abbott. (Same pub general likeness between them and the
and less capable of managing their own
affairs. An indication of it we see in the
lishers. )
book just noticed. The most solid profit
decline of local self-government, and the
Society and Politics in Ancient Rome : the modern reader can draw from them
Essays and Sketches. (Same author and
assumption by the central administration of
is the study of the causes which produced, responsibility for the conduct of public
publishers. )
or which exhibited, the decadence of the Affairs in the towns of Italy. ”
## p. 644 (#482) ############################################
644
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
a
error
This the author calls the growth of
the technique of the classics, for it looked
paternalism in Rome, and gives us very EDUCATION AS PHILOSOPHY. on childhood as a necessary, but regrettable
pregnant suggestions on the writing of
waste of time. Or on another theory,
To include book
its history and development. We trust
the theory of
upon
the classical ages were the youth of the
he will find time to do it himself. A further education in a serial history of philosophy world ; like goes to like, therefore little
is no doubt defensible, though no defence boys should learn mensa and profit by
step in this lamentable history was the
is offered. Certainly the possibility of those pure lyrics in praise of
despotic acts of Diocletian, who not only
laid down that people must not believe education implies a metaphysic, and our
fons and mons,
what he thought bad for them (. e. , Chris-
view of a particular system cannot be
Chalybs, hydrops, gryps, and pons,
tianity), but also that they must not pay independent of our notions of world-
tianity), but also that they must not pay structure in general. But that does not
et hoc genus omne.
But “our understandings are not all
all the articles of common life. This justify a bare assumption of the right to
existence. After reading Prof. Adams we
to be built by the square of Greece and
Mr. Abbott has expounded in a most
interesting essay on Diocletian's edict,
are reconciled, though we cannot forget, Rome," so Naturalism with its noble
and the extant lists of prices laid down to take a single example, that educational savage, the Idealism of Froebel and
by him. But, though death was the is far below political philosophy in order Pestalozzi with its plant, and all the
penalty appointed for violations of the and articulate development. A little rele- other systems follow one another, showing
law, and much blood (according to Lac-
vant psychology and some more or less at least that the history of educational
tantius) was shed in enforcing it, it relevant theorizing come from school theory is the history of metaphor. Dr.
came to naught. The cost of living masters and others, but there are no Montessori's original system we notice in
cannot be controlled in this way by any ruler's deposition was once coloured by
Bastilles in the history of education. A the next article.
But there is no need to analyze more
paternal despots. The whole process, the plea that he hath broken the social fully what can be read with pleasure by
deavouring to violate a great natural law. compact,” but “educands” seldom rise any one who takes a little trouble. We
If the poor, whether deserving or not, up against the tyranny of their elders, may mention an interesting discussion of
specific education, as in our English
if the idle, if the incompetent, are all to be crying, “ Pedagogues to the lantern! ”
made comfortable, it can only be at the
Having struck our blow against the in- public schools, where the aim is definitely
truder in the domain of philosophy, we
to produce a Christian gentleman, and
cost of the labour of the better citizen, and, admit that Prof. Adams does not fail to its relation to specialization, though
when this labour is so misemployed, it soon
special-
show in concrete cases the intimate relation between specific education and
begins to diminish, and national poverty of educational theory to other kinds of ization at long range. ”. the
distinction
necessarily supervenes. This was the great
seems to wear a little thin. These philo-
financial crisis from which the Roman speculation. Not forgetting the
which Kant committed, after himself sophic refinements do, in fact, become
Empire could not recover.
warning others against it, we do not depressing, and we weary of a world where
This is only one of the many topics expect an actual scheme of values to be only the rules of the game restrain us
which Mr. Abbott has handled with insight deduced from the voivaì ápxai of thought from knocking down the house of cards in
and care, making the life of the Roman But it is interesting to see how free-disgust. Even the distinction between
people, especially the common people, dom of the will is usually implied, education and life is in one aspect merely
live for us with great freshness. We
how original sin appears in the notion
a concession to utility. We feel that
seldom find anything in his clear and that it is easy to educate for evil, as though while we are capable of learning, educa-
lively exposition to criticize. But we
any one could be made a villain, and a tion is going on, and the educator and
will remind him that it is a mistranslation weakling could rise to high altitudes educand may be one.
This is the nega--
of Quintilian to make him say that of misbehaviour. Environment and con- tion of the pedagogic spirit. Goethe, as
satire was the only purely Roman form sciousness concern education, as well as
Prof. Adams says, had as little of that
of literature. . . Quintilian knew as well as being the battle-fields of philosophy, and spirit as falls to the lot of man,” though
Horace that the Greeks had written satire
we postulate progress, saying perhaps he used many of the ordinary relation-
from Archilochus down. What
Quin- with Kant that we should educate to a ships of life with a deliberate educa-
tilian did say was that the medley of prose standard a little in advance of actual tional bias. ” Here, at any rate, the
and verse
which the Romans called needs, so that the “educand ” shall not be criticism of categories seems to fail us.
(lanx) satura was a purely Roman form, left behind. Or the notion of heredity Education for once is only an ardent and
and that is true. In thinking the real steps in, and we invest with an eye to penetrating desire to be in the fullest
istic novel Roman, surely Mr. Abbott has compound interest, until the transmission relation to experience. Anything short
not taken proper account of Lucius of of acquired characteristics is questioned ; of this seems almost inevitably tainted
Patræ, who wrote the original form of The then we become only life-tenants of this with the notion quoted by Prof. Adams
Golden Ass' (of Lucian and Apuleius), world on a lease which has no clause from a Bishop of London, who said that,
probably in Nero's days, and probably giving compensation for unexhausted im- whatever else it might mean, education
also in Greek. Nor does he know that
provements.
always implied in the last resort inter-
now have evidence of Greek prose
novels of adventure besides the Romance analogies and comparisons and
There can hardly be a limit to the communication between an inferior and
a superior mind. We must always be
of Ninus. ' A papyrus brought from the nexions which diligence could trace. Prof. judging and valuing, but the distinction
Fayyum some years ago, and printed first Adams finds even “ categories
categories ” of edu- of benefactor and beneficiary is not so
by the Academy of the Lincei, Rome, then cation—polarity (which covers subject precise as that. We should, indeed, be
in a more accurate form by Prof. Smyly and object), the organon (which covers out of patience with the whole business,
(Hermathena No. xxvii. , 1901), is of about matter and form), others concerned with if there were not a potent reason for
veloped. In discussing the history of the artificial as against natural, and many be only the
old faculty psychology in a new
the same time, and shows the genre fully de- specific as against general education, keeping it within the bounds of human
Roman alphabet Mr. Abbott should have
considered that such a letter as Q, coming most valuable in its historical chapters.
dress
s; nevertheless, we can quiet our
from the koph in the old Greek alphabet. The author's narrative is clear and pene- consciences a little by the reflection that
was also being used in current Greek trating; behind the exposition a pleasant the desire to educate must be in some
accounts as the symbol for 90, and in a form humour is only half concealed, and a
way connected with parenthood. There
closely resembling our q. Indeed, the Greek power of crisp phrasing gives the necessary is the spur of an innate desire; so we take
signs for numbers would have given him relief. We learn that Humanism natur- the defenceless young, and work out our
light on many points. It is worth while to ally used childhood as a time for learning energy on that material. Even then we
make suggestions to so able and learned
must remember that the child may be
a writer, and one who has mastered his The Evolution of Educational Theory. By unable to escape, but it can pray with
authorities so well.
John Adams. (Macmillan & Co. ) some effect to be delivered from its friends.
*
we
con-
more.
## p. 645 (#483) ############################################
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
645
THE ATHENÆUM
66
ance.
,
gogy as applied to Child Education
in tidy, little brooms sweep, dusters perform The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift,
D. D.
* The Children's Houses. ” By Maria children act, instead of seeing their
their duty: the great point is that the
Edited by F. Elrington Ball.
With an Introduction by the Right
Montessori
. With Additions and Re- elders acting on their behalf. There is
Rev. J. H. Bernard. Vol. III. (Bell
visions by the Author. Translated by practice in sitting, standing, moving
& Sons).
Anne E. George, with an Introduction about, taking up and setting down objects, DR. ELRINGTON BALL must be wearied of
by Prof. H. W. Holmes. (Heinemann. )
or passing them to one another. There
the monotonous chorus of eulogy which
The manner in which this volume is are conversations, the “ directress” inquir- greets each successive instalment of his
translated will, it is to be feared, some-ing about little failures and successes
monumental edition of Swift's Corre-
what retard that wide dissemination whether, for example, a child has managed spondence, and to please him we would
which is its due. Not that the version is to go upstairs without muddying the steps. willingly sing out of tune, if only he would
unfaithful ; its defect is that, in holding Exercises to develope co-ordinated move oblige us with a reasonable pretext. But
close to the Italian, it has not always got ments of the fingers. . . . prepare the chil- a careful examination of his third volume
so far as to be English. That, for instance, dren for the exercises of practical life, compels us to echo the note we have
which Miss George calls“ didactic ma- such as dressing and undressing them- twice sounded before. His editing, mas-
terial” is known to British teachers as selves. " The apparatus for this purpose terly from the first, only gains in its sure
“educational apparatus. " Pedagogic,” consists of wooden frames, each mounted and easy command of the immense store
again, is, in these islands, a word which with two pieces of cloth, or leather, to be of biographical and historical materials
has a highly specialized usage ; in her fastened or unfastened by means of the which he has collected from all available
pages, however, it appears with great buttons and buttonholes, hooks and sources, and his notes form an encyclo-
frequency, and in two cases out of three eyes, eyelets and lacings, or automatic pædia of accurate information on all
the correct equivalent would be “educa- fasteners. ” Graduated cubes, cylinders, persons and subjects connected with the
tional. ”
&c. , all so arranged that the child tests letters. It would need a microscopic eye
The book itself is of pregnant signific- its own achievement, lead the fingers, the to detect even trivial slips.
It brings into the most vital of eye, and the mind to distinguish size and
The present volume includes, from a
human callings a new and a truer vision : weight. The children learn to sort into literary point of view, the most brilliant
Dr. Maria Montessori entered upon the gradations cards wound with coloured period of Swift's correspondence. The
education of children with the training, silk; and to touch and recognize surfaces letters range from the beginning of 1718
not of a teacher, but of a physician; she and shapes. All these processes are in
came to the schoolroom from another the nature of games ; the aim of the years Swift was writing the Drapier's
province, and saw it as a traveller sees a teacher is to interfere as little as possible Letters' and `Gulliver's Travels,' and
foreign country. Her first pupils were and to speak no unnecessary word. Her had not yet given up visiting his friends
defective children, and instead of making function is to give pupils the names as they in London. His chief correspondents
need them ; but to avoid anything that were still Bolingbroke, Oxford and his son,
keep their education as close as possible may distract attention or confuse remem- Prior, and Arbuthnot; and he had begun
to normal life. For two years she spent brance. Power of discrimination is ac- that delightful intercourse with Pope and
eleven hours a day with these children, quired very early. “Children of three Gay which forms one of the happiest
and her great instrument in dealing with years are able to put all the tints (sixty- memories of a life not yet quite soured.
them was the absence of restraint. Under four] in gradation. '
He had begun, too, the interchange of
her guidance children from idiot asylums Writing and reading are taught by letters with a new friend, Dr. Sheridan,
learnt to
means of letters cut out in wood or card. in which irresponsible levity contrasted
“ read and write so well that I was able to
These the child applies to painted letters oddly with the sombre tone of his con-
present them at a public school for an of the same size ; he follows their shapes temporary publications. Stella was still
examination together with normal children. with his finger, and later with a little alive, near and dear, and the volume
And they passed the examination success- stick, acquiring the power, and even the includes the only letter from the Dean to
fully. ”
habit, of writing before he is aware that Miss Hester Johnson that has been
Onlookers marvelled how they came to do he can write. When, in a surprisingly preserved, after the unapproachable
80 well ; Dr. Montessori marvelled how short time, he begins to set down words Journal to Stella. ' Vanessa also was
the normal children did no better; and and sentences, he does so with unusual near, too near, till her death in 1723,
from that time she began to work out a ease and precision. Reading advances at and the twenty-one letters between her
scheme for the reasonable education of the same time and by the same methods, and Cadenus printed in this volume
the ordinary child.
the exercises being undertaken as the reveal a relation which is, pathetically
Her opportunity arrived when an Italian pupils grow ready for them. There is human.
society for the better housing of work- no debarring of children from the great These letters to and from Vanessa were
people asked her to organize the schools educational tool of reading. The pupils read all printed by Sir Walter Scott; and,
which they were establishing in their quickly and easily at an early age; most though Dr. Ball has not been able to add
buildings for the younger children of other children, not allowed to learn then, anything of great importance towards the
their tenants. She carried into her task do so at a later age slowly and painfully. solution of the problem which has baffled
that freshly beholding eye which is the Thus it is not surprising that pupils who so many students of Swift's character,
mark of genius. She perceived that to pass, at five years old, from ** The Chil- his admirably judicial examination of the
give lessons to children sitting fixed in dren's House” to the elementary school whole question in Appendix III. will be
rows at desks—“ like butterflies mounted are found ready to enter, not the first, but scanned with absorbing interest.
on pins ”—was not to educate them for the third, division. In school studies they sents a full account of the Vanhomrigh
a world of activities and actualities ; that are ahead, and have, in addition, learnt family, and many
details about that
such children were, in fact, prisoned and to speak properly, to be clean, orderly, worthy alderman to whom, as Lord
enslaved. In “ The Children's Houses and gentle, to know the names of shapes, Mayor of Dublin, the civic authority owes
there are no desks, no fixed seats, no en colours, and qualities, to observe, to draw, its famous SS gold chain and medal
forced attitudes. When the little creatures to mould in clay, and, above all, to be adorned by Roettier with the bust of
come in the morning, they are first independent agents—more, to be civilized William III. , still, we believe, worn by
inspected as to their cleanliness (that they citizens. For, in its essence, what Dr. the holder of the office without detriment
must be sent clean is one of the very few Montessori teaches is civilization. Two to his political views. Alderman Van-
rules); hands, faces, and teeth that fall generations of such training might create homrighwas a friend of Schomberg, and
below the standard must be washed by a new society formed of persons who had as Commissary-General of Ireland at-
their owners, under friendly guidance if developed their capacities of body and tended his camp at Lisburn. He did his
required. They themselves“ visit” the of mind easily and happily.
work so well that he was specially com-
>>
It pre-
## p. 646 (#484) ############################################
646
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
as
was
66
cer-
66
mended by Government, and became not a discovery could not fail to arouse in Stella
only M. P. for Londonderry, but also one is a strong argument for the theory of the THE ROADS OF IRELAND.
of the chief commissioners of Irish revenue.
