ry, Rousseau proceeds to create in Sophie the ideal wife. It is not
the education of women as such that Rousseau discusses, but their
education with reference to man. He says, "The whole education of women
should be relative to men; to please them, to be useful to them, to make
themselves honored and loved by them, to educate the young, to care for
the older, to advise them, to console them, to make life agreeable and
sweet to them,--these are the duties of women in every age."
Consequently the sole instruction woman needs is in household duties, in
care of children, in ways to add to the happiness of her husband. Her
own happiness or development does not enter into Rousseau's scheme. This
is the weakest part of his educational theory. The world is gradually
awakening to the fact that woman's intellectual capacity is not
inferior to that of man, and the prejudices of ages are slowly
disappearing.

Rousseau's pedagogical theories made a profound impression throughout
Europe, and though often inconsistent, extravagant, and visionary, they
set the world to thinking of the child and his psychological
development. A new direction was thus given to educational theory and
practice, and upon this basis Pestalozzi, Froebel, and other modern
educators have built. Rousseau must, therefore, be reckoned among the
greatest pedagogical writers of modern times. Karl Schmidt pronounces
the "Emile" "a Platonic republic of education,--nevertheless, Rousseau's
work is a great universal achievement, the importance of which Goethe
recognizes when he calls the book the _nature-gospel_ of education."[127]

FOOTNOTES:

[122] "History of Pedagogy," p. 286.

[123] "Schoolmaster in Literature," pp. 40-63.

[124] "Geschichte der Paedagogik," p. 127. See also Compayre, "History of
Pedagogy," p. 286.

[125] "History of Pedagogy," p. 298.

[126] See address of Professor Earl Barnes, Proceedings of the National
Educational Association for 1893, p. 765. Also article by Dr. G. Stanley
Hall in _Pedagogical Seminary_, Vol. I, p. 196. Note also the religious
development of Laura Bridgman.

[127] "Geschichte der Paedagogik," Vol. III, p. 559.

CHAPTER XXXVII

MODERN EDUCATORS (_Continued_)

BASEDOW[128] (1723-1790)

The name of Basedow is connected with what is known as the
_Philanthropinic_ experiment. He was born at Hamburg, his father being a
wigmaker. Not being appreciated in his home, the son ran away and bound
himself out as ser