Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/419

 EDUCATION 411 well as separate articles on the various subjects comprised under the general head of education, such as BLIND, COLLEGE, COMMON SCHOOLS, DEAF AND DUMB, GYMNASIUM, IDIOCY, INSAN- ITY, INFANT SCHOOLS, MILITARY SCHOOLS, NORMAL SCHOOLS, and UNIVERSITY. In the earliest ages the entire education and culture of the people were in the hands of priests, who were the first founders of institutions, the first savants, statesmen, judges, physicians, astrono- mers, and architects; and science has been separated from religion, and teaching has been a distinct profession, only in the most highly civilized communities. Even in these, learning and schools have often been to a greater or less extent, more or less directly, under the patronage and care of religious bodies, since religion has been esteemed by all nations the highest interest of society. Historians usually account the inhabitants of India the most highly educated of the ancient nations of the East. Yet Hindoo learning and science have always been almost exclusively in the hands of the caste of Brahmans, who are allowed to explain the Vedas or sacred books only to the two castes next in rank. The early culture of the Egyptians was such, that the Greeks derived from them their first lessons in science and philosophy. In Egypt, too, the Israelites obtained the knowledge which enabled them to measure and "divide the land." Public education existed only in the castes of priests and warriors, until it became more general after the rise of the Persian and Greek domin- ion. While the mass of the people were trained to the mechanical arts, a few only were instructed in the mathematical sciences, and in the doctrines of morality and religion. The theocratic constitution of the Hebrew nation, and the founding of its politics and ethics on religion, produced a mental cultiva- tion as manifested in its literature very unlike that found among any other oriental people. The schools of the prophets are the only schools which are mentioned, but children were generally instructed by their parents in the law of Moses and the history of the nation. The obedience of children to the commands of their parents is a frequent injunction in the Scriptures. Girls were taught to sing, to play upon musical instruments, and to dance on solemn occasions ; and many female poets and learned women figure in the history of the an- cient Jews. After the exile the rabbis estab- lished schools to which children were sent from their 5th or 6th year, and in which, be- sides the teaching of the Scriptures, the com- mentaries and traditions, the Mishnah and Ge- mara, were taught and committed to memory. The instruction was oral, no student ever ta- king notes, and the Mishnah had long been transmitted from master to pupil before it was committed to writing. The most celebrated of the early rabbinical schools were those of Jamnia (long under the direction of Gamaliel, and at which Saint Paul studied), Tiberias, Alexandria, Babylon, and Jerusalem. During the greater part of the middle ages Jewish as- tronomers, physicians, poets, and philosophers were scattered through the cities of northern Africa and western Asia, Spain, Italy, and France. Their greatest schools flourished in Babylonia, Egypt, Fez, Andalusia, and Langue- doc. The culture of the ancient Persians was the exclusive care of the magi, a priestly caste of Median origin, who were the savants of the empire, the legislators, judges, interpreters of dreams, astrologers, and highest functionaries at court. There was no general system of national education, but the instruction was simple for the people, learned and religious for the magi, and military and political for the warrior. According to Herodotus, " they instructed their boys from their 5th to their 20th year in three things alone, to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth." In Greece, boys at the age of six years passed from the exclusive care of their mothers, who educated them till then along with the girls. At about their 8th year the boys were intrust- ed to the care of a pedagogue, who accom- panied them to school, and kept them con- stantly under surveillance. The schools were under the supervision but not the patronage of the state, and the fees received from pupils constituted the schoolmaster's income. In- struction began in the early morning, and was in three branches : the letters (comprehending reading, writing, and arithmetic), music (in- cluding also literature and art), and gymnastic exercises. Having learned to read, the boy was made familiar with the works of the poets, and required to commit to memory long select passages. Attendance at school was continued till the 16th or 18th year, after which those who wished became disciples of teachers of a higher order, the philosophers, rhetoricians, and sophists. For girls there were neither educational institutions nor pri- vate teachers. It was in obedience to the principles of the code of Solon that Athens became the centre and mother of liberal cul- ture. Though education, like religion, was recognized as a part of the political constitu- tion, yet the state left it to parental interests and aifection to educate the young, ordaining only certain general rules, chiefly in behalf of morality. Thus every citizen, under a severe penalty, was required to teach his son to read and to swim ; he was also to fit him for some occupation, otherwise the son would not be obliged to support him in his old age. Intel- lectual and esthetic culture was always prom- inent in Athenian education, and gymnastic training was encouraged as much in the inter- est of physical beauty as of physical strength. The Hellenic methods of education were in most respects copied by the Eomans, who, however, at first laid greater stress on vigor- ous corporeal exercises and the encourage- ment of patriotism. The ancient title of the schoolmaster was master of the games (ludi