SUPERIOR GENERAL EDUCATION.

CHAPTER V.

SCHOOLS OF LETTERS, SCIENCE, AND ART.

SCHOOLS OF LETTERS IN ENGLAND-FRANCE-ITALY-SWITZERLAND UNITED STATESSCHOOLS OF SCIENCE-SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL-LAWRENCE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL-FACULTIES OF PHILOSOPHY IN EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES-FRANCE-ITALYGERMAN STATES-GREAT BRITAIN-SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT-SCHOOLS OF ART.

1.-SCHOOLS OF LETTERS.

The secondary education, of which notice has been made, was marked as being in its higher range the outward limit of instruction in the schools found possible to any considerable portion of the people of even the most advanced country. The superior education of a people, however it may compare with that of other nations, is found in that highest culture furnished as a basis for life, or the pursuits of life, which any of its institutions of learning, not professional, may provide.

At first, when the total of human knowledge was narrowly limited, not only in range, but in the number of those who possessed it, this superior education was of but one order and was known as philosophy; the instruction given to such rare seekers after the higher knowledge as gathered about the philosopher in academic grove or temple porch to receive it, consisting chiefly of the principles of social life, of poetry, of rhetoric, and of geometry. As, in course of time, knowledge spread into countries other than those in whose language the best models of poetic composition, the profoundest doctrines of social and political philosophy, and the highest attainments in geometry were embraced, the study of language also had a place in the highest schools, which then became schools of philosophy and letters. But at length the borrowing nations produced new theories of philosophy and new models which, in turn, required to be studied, and thus, by multiplication, the study of language occupied so large a place that the order was reversed, and the schools of philosophy and letters became schools of letters and philosophy. This last form they preserved throughout the Middle Ages, and this they maintained, without modification, until the finding of the keys to the arcana of nature resulted in opening new fields of study and brought innovations upon the old order of things.

At first, the demands of science were only for a single place in the great schools, from which to teach its new revelations. But no sooner was this granted, than it demanded another, and another; and so grew

up that struggle between the humanities and the sciences which to-day constitutes the most interesting phenomenon of the educational world, and presents that most difficult problem for its solution, to which reference has already been made under a previous head.

As might have been anticipated, the result of this contest, so far as it relates to the superior schools, has been various in the different countries; the encroachments made by science having been determined in character and extent by the intellectual stamp of the people, the degree of social development, and the material conditions involved.

ENGLAND.

In England, parent of the new philosophy and of some of its most distinguished promoters, the resistance has been more marked than in any other country of Europe; and innovation has been less successful. The thick walls of Cambridge and Oxford, for centuries the defense of scholasticism and monasticism, long held out in proud defiance against the invaders, in spite of the battering rams of their mechanics and the yet more dangerous compounds of their chemistry. But neither the one nor the other of these strongholds has entirely held its own. At Cambridge the sciences entered by the unbarred gate of mathematics; and Oxford, at last alarmed by the multiplying hosts that gathered for a final assault, has also made partial and conditional capitulation; admitting only a few of the invading chiefs to its inner courts and prouder halls.

But even now, the physical and natural sciences do not breathe freely in their new homes. The humanities are not only still dominant, as they probably always will be, but treat the sciences with a certain proud imperiousness that ill comports with comfortable, much less equal, association. These ancient schools are still the great schools of letters in England. From their halls of classic culture, and from the like schools in Scotland and Ireland, for many centuries have gone forth a multitude of those orators, poets, philosophers, and statesmen, whose surpassing genius, disciplined and perfected by scholarship, has given to the world so many of those great productions of literature, science, and constitutional law which are at once the richest legacy and the highest glory of humanity. It is natural that such schools should be cherished by such a people, and that change of any sort should seem a desecration.

The present status of Cambridge and Oxford is more nearly that of a college (using that term in the English and American sense) than formerly, when they embraced professional schools of theology, law, and medicine, and were, to that extent, "universities" in fact, as well as in name. They still have authority to grant professional degrees and do annually grant them. But the principal part of the professional study requisite to the honors they confer is had at London, which is the scientific as well as commercial and governmental center of the kingdom. And yet these schools are not colleges; they are rather clusters of col

leges, or "federations of colleges," each having its own organization, laws, teachers, and pupils, but all under the superior supervision and general control of the university senate, by whose council the general laws are administered, and by whose grace all honors are conferred. The number of the colleges at Oxford is twenty-four; at Cambridge, seventeen. The instruction in the several colleges, each of which is essentially a school of letters, is given by tutors who became such on receiving the degree of bachelor and being elected fellows of the college. But there are also university teachers-thirty-five at Oxford, and about the same number at Cambridge-and these also bear the title of professor. The professional instruction is given by lectures, upon which, however, the pupils of the several colleges, though at liberty to do so, are not bound to attend. And inasmuch as the attendance upon lectures imposes an extra labor upon the pupil, already burdened perhaps by the routine of studies in the college to the limit of his willingness to study, the teaching is practically left to the tutors; but few of whom are teachers by choice, or, in the best sense, teachers at all. The consequence is, that the high rank these two ancient institutions once held has been so far degraded, that even at home they are no longer regarded as universities by the most enlightened and liberal educational men of the kingdom-one of whom but lately, in an official report to the schools inquiry commission, had the frankness, perhaps boldness, to style them mere hauts lycées, which, it will be observed, I have felt bound to class with schools of secondary education.

Whether the general overhauling of the institutions of England, political as well as educational, now going on, will result in the reorganization of these schools upon a more philosophic basis, remains to be seen. But of this there can be no doubt, that, at the present, the searcher for schools of letters of a high order, who may go to Oxford and Cambridge for the realization of his desire, will surely come away with a most profound disappointment. I cannot agree with those innovators who would turn them inside out, or upside down, in order to plant schools of science in their stead. For though schools of science are essential to progress in education as well as material development, schools of letters are no less essential; and where better could they flourish than at these grand old seats of the humanities, whose very memories may be made a healthy inspiration to all lovers of letters in England?

FRANCE.

The spirit of France, educationally speaking, is, as before remarked, eminently scientific. It is there that mathematics and the physical and natural sciences find the most congenial soil for their expansion and upward growth. But there, also, the humanities have a place and are cultured with exceeding care. Both are cherished and both honored. In the Académie de Paris, at the Sorbonne, the Faculté des Lettres, with its distinguished professors of philosophy, of the philosophy

of history, of Greek literature, of Latin eloquence, of Latin poetry, of French eloquence, of French poetry, of foreign literature, of geography, of ancient history, of modern history, and of the languages and literatures of the South, stands side by side, in the most cordial harmony, with the great Faculté des Sciences-neither jealous of, but each nobly emulating, the other by the brilliancy and utility of its accomplishment. So, also, in each of the other fifteen academies of the empire, science and letters have a place on the same plane; the total number of chairs in the faculties of letters being eighty-six; in those of science, ninety

seven.

And there, too, is the Collége de France, in which eleven chairs of science have friendly relations with the twenty-one chairs more especially belonging to the domain of letters and philosophy, namely: Of the law of nature and of nations; comparative history of legislation; political economy; history and moral philosophy; epigraphy and Roman antiquities; Egyptian archæology and philology; Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syrian languages; Arabic language; Turkish language; Persian language and literature; languages and literatures of China and Tartary; Sanscrit language and literature; Greek language and literature; Latin eloquence; Greek and Latin philosophy; French language and literature of the Middle Ages; modern language and literature of France; foreign languages and literatures of modern Europe; Slavic language and literature; and of comparative grammar, together with complementary courses on the history of medicine, and the history of political economy. Nor is this all: Paris possesses still another remarkable school of letters in the Imperial School of Living Oriental Languages, in which there are chairs of, learned Arabic; vulgar Arabic; Persian language; Turkish language; Armenian language; modern Greek; Hindoostanee; modern Chinese; Malay and Javanese; Algerian Arabic; Thibetian; and Japanese.

No matter what its degree of devotion to the sciences, it can hardly be said of a country, at whose capital are clustered great schools of letters like these-schools in whose numerous chairs are found such men as Chevalier, Laboulaye, Guizot, and a galaxy of others of the most distinguished savans of the age-that it does not still cherish its hereditary love of the humanities.

That letters ought to have a higher development in provincial France is undoubtedly true; but this same is also true of every other department of its education. Independent of its great capital, France is only now awakening to some realization of the contrast the empire at large bears to its dazzling center.

ITALY.

Italy, which, in the character of its higher institutions of learning, is less eminently scientific, but equally or more literary, provides for the high cultivation of letters in like manner, to wit, by means of faculties in the universities. There, however, philosophy is so associated with

letters that separate degrees are conferred upon such students as confine themselves to the one or the other course. The terms of admission are based upon the assumption that no one will present himself to the Facoltà di Filosofia e Lettere who is not able to produce his certificate of having completed the course in the lyceum and to undergo an examination upon the Italian and Latin languages and literature, Greek grammar, ancient history and geography, and the elements of philosophy. The term of study in each of the two branches of the faculty is four years; the course in letters being as follows:

First year. Greek literature; Italian literature; Latin literature; ancient and modern geograhpy; ancient history.

Second year. A continuation of the various literatures named, with the addition of modern history.

Third year. Continuation of the studies of the second year, with the addition of anthropology and pedagogy.

Fourth year. Greek, Latin, and Italian literatures, with archæology, comparative study of languages and literatures, and the philosophy of history.

The philosophic course embraces

First year. Latin literature; ancient history; theoretical philosophy; anthropology and pedagogy.

Second year. Greek literature; theoretical philosophy; history of philosophy; modern history.

Third year. Greek literature; moral and practical philosophy; history of philosophy; theoretical philosophy.

Fourth year. Moral and practical philosophy; history of philosophy; comparative study of languages and literatures; history of philosophy. The degree conferred in either case is the doctorate; and the student, who having completed one course and received the degree, is also able to pass the requisite examination upon all the branches of study taught in the other course, may also receive the other degree. The great partiality natural to the Italian mind for legal and philosophic studies had long led to the cultivation of letters to a higher degree, than any other department of learning. But with the dawn of science there arose so brilliant a constellation of great discoveries in chemistry, physics, and astronomy, that for a time letters were dimmed in their brightness, and only again appeared in the supremacy upon the reaction that followed the Reformation and gave to the church new power over all the schools of learning. While, therefore, letters and philosophy are cherished in Italy and hold high rank in the great schools of the present, they still wear the impress of a learning distorted, cramped, and doubtingly waiting for the vitalization that is to come with the promised new reign of freedom and independence of thought.

GERMANY.

But Germany is the natural home, and the free home, of letters. Nowhere else in the world do they receive such careful, thorough, and