第 23 节
作者:嘟嘟      更新:2021-04-30 16:07      字数:9321
  prejudices found shelter and protection after they had been
  hunted out of every other corner of the world。 In general; the
  richest and best endowed universities have been the slowest in
  adopting those improvements; and the most averse to permit any
  considerable change in the established plan of education。 Those
  improvements were more easily introduced into some of the poorer
  universities; in which the teachers; depending upon their
  reputation for the greater part of their subsistence; were
  obliged to pay more attention to the current opinions of the
  world。
  But though the public schools and universities of Europe
  were originally intended only for the education of a particular
  profession; that of churchmen; and though they were not always
  very diligent in instructing their pupils even in the sciences
  which were supposed necessary for that profession; yet they
  gradually drew to themselves the education of almost all other
  people; particularly of almost all gentlemen and men of fortune。
  No better method; it seems; could be fallen upon of spending;
  with any advantage; the long interval between infancy and that
  period of life at which men begin to apply in good earnest to the
  real business of the world; the business which is to employ them
  during the remainder of their days。 The greater part of what is
  taught in schools and universities; however; does not seem to be
  the most proper preparation for that business。
  In England it becomes every day more and more the custom to
  send young people to travel in foreign countries immediately upon
  their leaving school; and without sending them to any university。
  Our young people; it is said; generally return home much improved
  by their travels。 A young man who goes abroad at seventeen or
  eighteen; and returns home at one and twenty; returns three or
  four years older than he was when he went abroad; and at that age
  it is very difficult not to improve a good deal in three or four
  years。 In the course of his travels he generally acquires some
  knowledge of one or two foreign languages; a knowledge; however;
  which is seldom sufficient to enable him either to speak or write
  them with propriety。 In other respects he commonly returns home
  more conceited; more unprincipled; more dissipated; and more
  incapable of any serious application either to study or to
  business than he could well have become in so short a time had he
  lived at home。 By travelling so very young; by spending in the
  most frivolous dissipation the most precious years of his life;
  at a distance from the inspection and control of his parents and
  relations; every useful habit which the earlier parts of his
  education might have had some tendency to form in him; instead of
  being riveted and confirmed; is almost necessarily either
  weakened or effaced。 Nothing but the discredit into which the
  universities are allowing themselves to fall could ever have
  brought into repute so very absurd a practice as that of
  travelling at this early period of life。 By sending his son
  abroad; a father delivers himself at least for some time; from so
  disagreeable an object as that of a son unemployed; neglected;
  and going to ruin before his eyes。
  Such have been the effects of some of the modern
  institutions for education。
  Different plans and different institutions for education
  seem to have taken place in other ages and nations。
  In the republics of ancient Greece; every free citizen was
  instructed; under the direction of the public magistrate; in
  gymnastic exercises and in music。 By gymnastic exercises it was
  intended to harden his body; to sharpen his courage; and to
  prepare him for the fatigues and dangers of war; and as the Greek
  militia was; by all accounts; one of the best that ever was in
  the world; this part of their public education must have answered
  completely the purpose for which it was intended。 By the other
  part; music; it was proposed; at least by the philosophers and
  historians who have given us an account of those institutions; to
  humanize the mind; to soften the temper; and to dispose it for
  performing all the social and moral duties both of public and
  private life。
  In ancient Rome the exercises of the Campus Martius answered
  the purpose as those of the Gymnasium in ancient Greece; and they
  seem to have answered it equally well。 But among the Romans there
  was nothing which corresponded to the musical education of the
  Greeks。 The morals of the Romans; however; both in private and
  public life; seem to have been not only equal; but; upon the
  whole; a good deal superior to those of the Greeks。 That they
  were superior in private life; we have the express testimony of
  Polybius and of Dionysius of Halicarnassus; two authors well
  acquainted with both nations; and the whole tenor if the Greek
  and Roman history bears witness to the superiority of the public
  morals of the Romans。 The good temper and moderation of
  contending factions seems to be the most essential circumstances
  in the public morals of a free people。 But the factions of the
  Greeks were almost always violent and sanguinary; whereas; till
  the time of the Gracchi; no blood had ever been shed in any Roman
  faction; and from the time of the Gracchi the Roman republic may
  be considered as in reality dissolved。 Notwithstanding;
  therefore; the very respectable authority of Plato; Aristotle;
  and Polybius; and notwithstanding the very ingenious reasons by
  which Mr。 Montesquieu endeavours to support that authority; it
  seems probable that the musical education of the Greeks had no
  great effect in mending their morals; since; without any such
  education; those of the Romans were upon the whole superior。 The
  respect of those ancient sages for the institutions of their
  ancestors had probably disposed them to find much political
  wisdom in what was; perhaps; merely an ancient custom; continued
  without interruption from the earliest period of those societies
  to the times in which they had arrived at a considerable degree
  of refinement。 Music and dancing are the great amusements of
  almost all barbarous nations; and the great accomplishments which
  are supposed to fit any man for entertaining his society。 It is
  so at this day among the negroes on the coast of Africa。 It was
  so among the ancient Celts; among the ancient Scandinavians; and;
  as we may learn from Homer; among the ancient Greeks in the times
  preceding the Trojan war。 When the Greek tribes had formed
  themselves into little republics; it was natural that the study
  of those accomplishments should; for a long time; make a part of
  the public and common education of the people。
  The masters who instructed the young people; either in music
  or in military exercises; do not seem to have been paid; or even
  appointed by the state; either in Rome or even in Athens; the
  Greek republic of whose laws and customs we are the best
  informed。 The state required that every free citizen should fit
  himself for defending it in war; and should; upon that account;
  learn his military exercises。 But it left him to learn them of
  such masters as he could find; and it seems to have advanced
  nothing for this purpose but a public field or place of exercise
  in which he should practise and perform them。
  In the early ages both of the Greek and Roman republics; the
  other parts of education seem to have consisted in learning to
  read; write; and account according to the arithmetic of the
  times。 These accomplishments the richer citizens seem frequently
  to have acquired at home by the assistance of some domestic
  pedagogue; who was generally either a slave or a freed…man; and
  the poorer citizens; in the schools of such masters as made a
  trade of teaching for hire。 Such parts of education; however;
  were abandoned altogether to the care of the parents or guardians
  of each individual。 It does not appear that the state ever
  assumed any inspection or direction of them。 By a law of Solon;
  indeed; the children were acquitted from maintaining those
  parents in their old age who had neglected to instruct them in
  some profitable trade or business。
  In the progress of refinement; when philosophy and rhetoric
  came into fashion; the better sort of people used to send their
  children to the schools of philosophers and rhetoricians; in
  order to be instructed in these fashionable sciences。 But those
  schools were not supported by the public。 They were for a long
  time barely tolerated by it。 The demand for philosophy and
  rhetoric was for a long time so small that the first professed
  teachers of either could not find constant employment in any one
  city; but were obliged to travel about from place to place。 In
  this manner lived Zeno of Elea; Protagoras; Gorgias; Hippias; and
  many others。 As the demand increased; the schools both of
  philosophy and rhetoric became stationary; first in Athens; and
  afterwards in several other cities。 The state; however; seems