"the right-feeling parent," says Herbert Spencer, “like the philanthropic legislator, will not rejoice in coercion, but will rejoice in dispensing with coercion." (See MORAL EDUCATION.) In this connection, arises the question of the propriety of corporal punishment to enforce authority in the family or school. All educators are agreed, that the use of physical force, if at all sanctioned, should be only, as a dernier ressort, brought in when every other means of coercion has failed; some, however, condemn the "use of the rod" utterly. Locke assents to it only in cases of extreme obstinacy. "The teacher," says D. P. Page, "has the right to establish authority by corporal infliction; and thus to save the school and also save himself. . . . . It is his duty to establish authority, peaceably, indeed, if he may,-forcibly if he must." (See CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.) In the exercise of authority, both parent and teacher should faithfully consider the influence they are exerting over the future character of the child. As Locke says, "Every man must some time or other be trusted to himself and his own conduct; and that he is a good, a virtuous, and able man, must be made so within." In the family and school, as in the great world beyond, authority should, as far as possible, be exercised without being felt. Richter justly remarks, "The best rule in politics is said to be 'pas trop gouverner'; it is also true in education."

The principle of authority has an important application to the mental as well as the moral education of children. In the earliest stages of intellectual instruction, the child must receive most of the information imparted to it on the authority of its teacher; but modern principles and methods require that, even from the first, as far as possible, the child should learn for itself by the exercise of its perceptive and conceptive faculties, and not merely on the authority of its teachers. Much, however, must be imparted, that is beyond the scope of the child's understanding and experience; and, consequently, there will be a wide range for the operation of the teacher's authority. It will, of course, be greater or less in proportion to his personal influence in other respects, and particularly in proportion to the confidence felt by his pupils in his wisdom and attainments. In some instances, as exemplified in the history of religious orders and creeds and of the schools of philosophy and science, the authority of eminent teachers has often been so great as to exert an influence for many centuries over thousands, or even millions, of intellects. Such was the intellectual authority of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and other leaders of ancient schools of philosophy. Teaching too much by authority, and failing to appeal sufficiently to the reason and judgment of the pupil is an error to be carefully avoided; since it must exert a disastrous influence upon the student's habits of thought and acquisition. With all due deference to the philosopher of Samos, who

was content to have his disciples depend upon the Ipse dixit Pythagoras, his example cannot be wisely imitated by the teachers of our time. Every one must learn to form his own opinions, carefully, dispassionately, after due investigation, and a proper consideration for the conclusions and experience of other minds; but still they must be his own. The teacher should infuse into the minds of his pupils an intellectual independence, not a skeptical questioning of everything, but a thoughtful investigation of the why and the wherefore, a diligent balancing of the weight of testimony, and a habit of inquiring into the ultimate reasons of things, as far as they can be adduced. This will impart concentrativeness and activity of mind, and call into exercise the judgment and reflection upon whatever is presented to the attention, whether in study, reading, or conversation. The pupil thus instructed would soon realize the force and beauty of that fine sentiment of Emerson: "I had better never see a book than be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system." Montaigne strongly condemned the prevalent mode of teaching by authority. Let the tutor," says he, "make his pupil examine and thoroughly sift every thing he reads, and lodge nothing in his head upon simple authority and upon trust .... Let him know that he does know." Rousseau also severely criticised the pedagogy of his time, for basing the science of education on the principle of authority. He demanded that the pupil should not know anything merely because it was told him by the teacher, but because he understood it. He should not learn the science, but discover it. "If," said he, “you give him an authority instead of a reason, he will never think independently, but will always be the football of the opinions of others." This is an extreme view, as every teacher of experience must know. The authority of the teacher cannot be eliminated in intellectual education; since to do so would put the undeveloped understanding of the pupil on an equality with the mature and developed intellect of the instructor; neither can its just limits be definitely fixed. The disposition to accept the statements of the teacher as truths, when not fully understood, should be cultivated. Modesty is often as requisite and as becoming in thought as in morals. The great principle to be kept in view-and it is to the credit of Rousseau that he so clearly perceived, and so emphatically enunciated it-is, that authority should not have its aim within itself, but that its object should be to develop the faculties of the pupil, so that he may fully understand as true and right, what he has received on the authority of the teacher. See MONTAIGNE, Essais (Cotton's translation, edited by W. Hazlitt); LOCKE, Thoughts on Education; ROUSSEAU, Emile ou de l'Education; HERBERT SPENCER, Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical.

BACCHANTS

BACON

67

BACCHANTS (Lat. Bacchantes) is a term applied in mediæval times to those university students who had not yet finished their first year's studies, and being taxed for drinking purposes by the older students, were thus drawn into revels and debauchery. Later, this name was given to those idle, dissolute students who traveled about the country, collecting money, ostensibly to enable them to pursue their studies. Sometimes they were accompanied by pupils, whom they compelled to steal and beg for them. (See A B C-SHOOTERS.) So numerous were these itinerant scholars, that organizations of them existed with constitutions and rituals; and sometimes these bodies were supplied with board and lodging by the cities in which they located themselves. These practices ceased almost entirely with the Reformation, but we find traces of them in Germany and England down almost to the present century. Burkard Lingg and Thomas Platen were Bacchants, whose autobiographies in German are still extant.

BACHELOR (Lat. Baccalaureus), a term applied to one who has reached a certain grade in a college or university education; as, Bachelor of Arts (A. B., or B. A.), Bachelor of Civil Law (B. C. L.), Bachelor of Divinity (B. D.), etc. The word as thus used is of uncertain etymology. It was introduced into the University of Paris by Pope Gregory IX., in the 13th century, and applied as a title to those students who had passed certain preliminary examinations, but were not prepared for admission into the rank of master, teacher, or doctor. Afterwards, it was adopted by other European universities, to indicate the lowest academical honor, as it is now used both in this country and in Europe. (See ARTS, and DEGREES.)

BACON, Francis, Viscount St. Albans and Baron Verulam, one of the most illustrious of English philosophers, was born in London, Jan. 22., 1561, and died April 9., 1626. Little is known of his early education, but from the social position of his father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, he must have enjoyed the advantages of the best instruction that could have been obtained. He was matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1573; and, after going abroad for a time, he returned and commenced the study of the law in 1580. He was soon called to the bar, and in 1590, his reputation was so great, that he was made "counsel extraordinary" to Queen Elizabeth. He afterwards served in parliament, when he showed so much spirit, that on receiving the royal rebuke for a certain speech, which he had delivered, he nobly replied, that "he spoke in discharge of his conscience, and his duty to God, to the queen, and his country." As an orator, he was much commended by his contemporaries. Ben Jonson said that while he was speaking, "the fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end." The earl of Essex had been his friend and benefactor; but when

that rash and unfortunate nobleman was under trial, Bacon, evidently from fear of the queen's displeasure, spoke severely against him, and was instrumental in securing his conviction. This has subjected him to much obloquy, as being guilty of meanness and ingratitude. After the accession of James I., Bacon rose rapidly in the royal favor; his professional practice became very large and lucrative, besides which he held the office of attorney general which yielded him £6,000 per annum. In 1616, he was made lord high chancellor, and, besides, received the title of Baron Verulam; and, in 1621, he obtained the additional title of Viscount St. Albans. At this time, he stood upon the highest pinnacle of political preferment and literary fame; for he had just published his greatest work, the Novum Organum. From this lofty position he suddenly fell, accused and condemned of taking bribes from those whose cases were before his court. His own words to the House of Lords, when the facts had been disclosed by an investigation, were, "I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defense, and put myself upon the grace and mercy of your lordships." He was, accordingly, sentenced to pay a fine of £40,000, and to suffer imprisonment in the Tower during the king's pleasure (1621). He was, however, released from confinement in two days, and the fine was subsequently remitted. He never regained the position he had so disgracefully lost, but spent the few remaining years of his life in a studious and literary retirement. Between the career of Bacon as a politician and his career as a philosopher there is a marked contrast. "Had his life," says Macaulay, "been passed in literary retirement, he would, in all probability, have deserved to be considered, not only as a great philosopher, but as a worthy and good-natured member of society. But neither his principles nor his spirit were such as could be trusted, when strong temptations were to be resisted, and serious dangers to be braved." His desire to keep up a grand establishment, to make a brilliant figure in society by the princely character of his entertainments, his equipage, and all the other fascinations of luxury, caused expenditures far beyond his means, which he endeavored to meet by unlawful gains. His philosophical views were in one sense entirely consistent with his character. They were practical; they aimed to make science minister to the worldly wants of mankind. The scholastic learning of the universities which he had inveighed against shortly after leaving Cambridge, was, he perceived, nothing but antiquated, profitless wordlearning. He wished to incite to the discovery of new truth, that it might "mix like a living spring with the stagnant waters." "Two words," says Macaulay, "form the key of the Baconian doctrine-utility and progress. The ancient philosophy disdained to be useful, and was content to be stationary. It dealt largely in theories

of moral perfection, which were so sublime that they never could be more than theories; in attempts to solve insoluble enigmas; in exhortations to the attainment of unattainable frames of mind. It could not condescend to the humble office of ministering to the comfort of human beings." Bacon held that all knowledge must be obtained by a careful and unprejudiced induction from facts. Hence the importance of experiment; for without experiment man may indeed stumble on the discovery of truth, but by experiment inventions are made. "Bacon," says Kuno Fischer, "is the philosopher, not simply of experience, but of invention. His only endeavor is philosophically to comprehend and fortify the inventive spirit of man. From this point alone is his opposition to antiquity to be explained." Bacon's career commenced at a time when a great intellectual revolution was already in progress. The Aristotelian philosophy so called, which was indeed a perversion of Aristotle's teachings, and the senseless attempt to employ the syllogism as an instrument of discovery, had already disgusted a large number of active minds, as being utterly barren of fruit. As Macaulay remarks, "Before the birth of Bacon, the empire of the scholastic philosophy had been shaken to its foundation. Antiquity, prescription, the sound of great names had ceased to awe mankind." Bacon's mind was so constituted as to sympathize at once with this changed condition of things; and throwing the weight of his vast intellect against the already tottering fabric, he precipitated its fall. As Aristotle analyzed the method of deductive reasoning, so Bacon explained the principles and method of induction, proving it to be the great instrument, or organon, for the discovery of truth and the improvement of the condition of humanity. The full title of his great work is Novum Organum, sive Indicia Vera de Interpretatione Nature et Regno Hominis. (The New Organon, or True Directions concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man.) The key to the whole philosophy is contained in the first of the aphorisms of which it is composed: Man, being the servant and interpreter of nature, can do and understand so much, and so much only, as he has observed, in fact or in thought, of the course of nature; beyond this he neither knows any thing nor can do any thing." Previous to the publication of this work, he had published The Advancement of Learning (1605), which was the germ of De Augmentis Scientiarum, published in 1623. These and other works, published or proposed by him, were to constitute an Instauratio Magna-a grand re-establishment not only of the true method of scientific investigation but of science itself, in all its varied departments. Modern discovery and invention are to a great extent the offspring of this splendid gift of human genius. Bacon's most popular work was the Essays, originally published in 1597, but afterwards enlarged and improved. Dugald Stewart has said of this work, "It may be read from beginning to end in a few hours, and yet after the twentieth reading, one seldom

BAHRDT

fails to remark in it something overlooked before." In his essay on Education, Bacon refers all its efficacy to custom, or habit: "Certainly custom is most perfect when it beginneth in young years: this we call education; which is, in effect, but an early custom." But Bacon's contribution to education does not consist in any particular precepts concerning it or any special treatment of that subject; but in the general effect of his philosophical views, in setting free the human mind from errors and prejudices, and placing it on the direct road which leads to scientific truth. The best edition of Bacon's works is that edited by Spedding, Ellis, and Heath, vols. I.-xv. (London and Boston, 1858-1861). In this is contained the life of Bacon by William Rawley, D.D., his chaplain.See also MACAULAY'S Essays, s. v. Bacon, HEPWORTH, Personal History of Lord Bacon (London, 1859); REMUSAT, Bacon, sa vie et son influence (Paris, 1857); Kuno Fischer, Francis Bacon von Verulam (2d edit., Leipsic, 1875), which has been translated into English by JoHN OXENFORD (London, 1857); American Journal of Education, vol. iv. (1829), passim.

BADEN. See GERMANY.

BAHRDT, Carl Friedrich, a German professor and scholar, was born in 1741, and died in 1792. As professor of theology at the universities of Leipsic, Erfurt, and Giessen, he was regarded as one of the foremost representatives of the theological rationalism which prevailed at that time. As his dissolute life and his fondness for violent theological quarrels made his position as professor of theology impossible, he eagerly accepted, in 1775, the management of a philanthropin founded by Herr v. Salis at Marschlins, in the Swiss canton of Grisons. (See PHILANTHROPIN.) As he soon quarreled with his patron, his connection with this institution lasted only one year; but having been appointed superintendent-general at Dürkheim, he established, in May 1777, a new philanthropin in the neighboring castle at Heidesheim. This attempt was likewise unsuccessful, and the new philanthropin on the brink of ruin, when Bahrdt was suddenly summoned before the Reichshofrath (Imperial Court Council) for teaching doctrines not in accord with any of the three churches recognized in the empire, and, without any trial, deprived of all his offices. The unfairness of this treatment gained for him a great deal of sympathy, and from the Prussian government an appointment as professor at the university of Halle; but in consequence of the unsteadiness of his habits, he held this position likewise only a short time, and lost with it the esteem of nearly all who knew him. Bahrdt was one of the most gifted men of his age, and but for his total want of moral character, would undoubtedly have risen to great eminence, both as an educational writer and a practical educator. He founded two educational periodicals, entitled Literarisches Correspondenz- und Intelligenzblatt (1776) and Pädagogisches Wochenblatt (1778), which clearly indicate the rare talent of the editor, but neither of which survived the first year of

70

BALTIMORE CITY COLLEGE

BAPTISTS

VII. For lower assistants in a grammar or primary school, grammar, arithmetic, orthography, modern geography, and music.

In addition to these, all teachers must pass an examination in geometry and physiology before receiving a certicate of any grade.

Two-thirds of the questions in each branch must be answered in order to pass the candidate for any

grade.

No person is eligible to any position as teacher in any of the schools under the following ages: Professor in city college or principal of a male grammar school... First assistant in male grammar school..... Principal of female grammar school.. Principal of a primary school..

First assistant in female grammar school..
Assistant in female high school
Second assistant in grammar or primary
school.

.21 years. 19 years. .20 years. 20 years.

18 .18

years. years.

1875.

BALTIMORE FEMALE COLLEGE, at Baltimore, Md., was founded in 1849, and was under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church from that date to 1868, when, by an act of the legislature, the Board of Trustees became a permanent corporation; and the Board is now composed of Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians. The number of students in the institution is (1876) about 100; Nathan C. Brooks, LL. D., has been the president of the College since its foundation. It has an endowment of $2,500 from the State of Maryland, but tuition fees constitute its chief support. While its course of higher education has been general, it has trained and sent forth 157 teachers, most of whom are occupying positions of responsibility in academies, high schools, and colleges.

BAPTISTS, a denomination of Christians distinguished by the denial of baptism to infants, and by the restriction of that rite to those who therein profess personal faith and regeneration. They baptize by immersion only, and in the form of their church-government are congregational. In England, they are known as General and Particular, the former, which is by a few years the older denomination in that country, being Arminian, and the latter which composes the far

Training of Teachers.-The normal class, established Sept. 12., 1874, is designed to afford to newly appointed teachers of the city schools instruction in the theory and practice of teaching. It is under the supervision of the superintendent of public instruction. The State Normal School is located at Baltimore, besides which there is a normal school for the instruction of colored teachers. (See MARYLAND.)

BALTIMORE CITY COLLEGE. This institution is under the care of the commissioners of public schools of Baltimore, and forms a part of the common school system of that city. It was originally established as the Central High School, with 46 pupils; but has graduated more than 500 students. The number on the roll Oct. 31., 1874, was 400, and the number of instructors was 11. Candidates for admission must pass a satisfactory examination in spelling, writing, grammar, geography, arithmetic, and algebra through simple equations. The curriculum embraces the English, French, German, and Latin languages (Greek optional), history, writing, and book-keeping, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytical geometry, calculus, physiology, chemistry, physical geography, natural philosophy, astronomy, psychology, logic, rhetoric, moral philosophy, political economy, and the constitution of the United States. The full course is four years. Boys fourteen years of age, whether pupils of the public schools or not, may be admitted on passing the required examination.

istic, in theology. They are likewise distinguished as Close - Communion and Open - Communion, the larger part of the denomination in England being Open-Communion. Baptists came to this country with the first settlements. In Rhode Island, their churches are as old as the colony; and before the close of the seventeenth century they had gathered churches in Boston, in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, and at Charleston. Their rapid growth commenced about the middle of the eighteenth century. At the time of the Revolution, they are supposed to have had about 25,000 communicants. În 1876, they have more than 1,800,000. The great body are known by the appellation Baptists; lesser bodies are known as Free-Will, or lately as Free, Seventh-Day, Six Principles, and Old School. All these last constitute a fraction only of those who bear the generic name. The Disciples, or Campbellites, followers of Alexander Campbell, are a large secession, distinguished by peculiar theological views. In this country, the Baptists, meaning by this the chief denomination so called, are Close-Communion; that is, believing that no baptism is regular which is not the baptism of a believer and by immersion, and that a regular baptism is to preach participation in the Lord's Supper, they restrict their communion to the members of their own churches.

Several of the ministers, in the rise of the Baptist denomination in England, were univer sity graduates; but that source hopelessly failing with the Restoration, the Baptists are found, with other denominations, taking measures for the education of a ministry by means strictly their