ndue ou la
delicatesse de la sensibilite._' '_Il faut renoncer a l'idee de parler
aux enfans de ce que ni leur esprit ni leur ame ne peuvent encore
comprendre; ne pas leur faire admirer une constitution et reciter par
coeur les droits politiques de l'homme quand ils ont a peine une idee
nette de leurs relations avec leur famille et leurs camarades._'

Still more objectionable, we may be sure, would he have found the
practice of drilling little children by the hearth or at the school-desk
in creeds, catechisms, and the like repositories of mysteries baleful to
the growing intelligence. '_Aidons le developpement des facultes
humaines pendant la faiblesse de l'enfance_,' he said admirably, '_mais
n'abusons pas de cette faiblesse pour les mouler au gre de nos opinions
de nos interets, ou de notre orgueil._'--_Oeuv._ vi. 543-554.

Cf. also v. 363-365, where there are some deserved strictures on the
malpractice of teaching children as truth what the parents themselves
believe to be superstition or even falsehood.

The reader may remember the speech of the Patriarch, in Lessing's play,
against the Jew:

_Der mit Gewalt ein armes Christenkind
Dem Bunde seiner Tauf' entreisst! Denn ist
Nicht alles, was man Kindern thut, Gewalt?
Zu sagen: ausgenommen, was die Kirch',
An Kindern thut._

[83] His _Memoires sur l'Instruction Publique_, written in 1791-1792,
and printed in the seventh volume of the works, are still very well
worth turning to.

Transcribers' Notes:

Minor printer errors (omitted or incorrect punctuation) have been
amended without note. Other errors have been amended and are listed
below.

List of Amendments:

Page 201: colleages amended to colleagues; "... among his colleagues in
the deputation ..."

Page 240: added missing footnote anchor [66] to paragraph ending "...
ceased to be altogether exact."

End of Project Gutenberg's Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3), by John Morley

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