II. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.

12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be entrusted.

13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.

14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.

15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.

16. A society in which the observance of law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.

17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified.

CHAPTER XX

THE BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION

THE Readings of this chapter deal with the beginnings of national education in France and the United States, and relate to the work of the French revolutionary theorists and statesmen, and to the beginnings of state education in the new American States.

The first selection (254) is a good brief extract setting forth the great influence in France of the critical writings of Rousseau, itself one of the strange things in history. The second (255) gives an outline of the argument and proposals for national education made in France in 1763, by the parlementarian La Chalotais, and is interesting as revealing the national conception which the philosophers of France had by that time reasoned out. The third selection (256) is a synopsis of the famous bill of Condorcet, in which he proposed (1792) to organize a system of public instruction for France. The next (257) outlines the educational work of the National Convention (1792-95) in France, and shows how far the French statesmen were able to carry out the ideas of the political reformers of the time. The final selection relating to French effort (258) describes the foundation and early work of the Polytechnic School at Paris.

The remaining selections deal with American state beginnings. The first (259) reproduces the important early constitutional provisions of the American States; the next (260) shows the very progressive ideas as to state education which were embodied in the first Ohio Constitution; and the next (261) the broad scope of the system of public instruction proposed for the new State of Indiana. Selection (262) gives a digest of the early state legislation as to public education in those American States which enacted the most significant early school laws, and shows what it was proposed to enforce. The final selection (263) gives a digest of Jefferson's plan of 1799 for the organization of a system of public instruction for Virginia — a plan French in its ideas and scope.

254. The Far-reaching Influence of Rousseau's Writings (Dabney, R. H., The Causes of the French Revolution, pp. 277-79. New York, 1888. Reproduced by permission of the publishers, Henry Holt & Co.) Among the strangest things in history is the enormous and farreaching influence exercised by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Of him Dabney writes:

The plebeian Rousseau, living from hand to mouth, by turns valet, clerk, tramp, tutor, copyist, author, fugitive, was filled with unquenchable hatred of the rich and powerful. This hatred, together with an ardent love of humanity, made him burn with the desire to overthrow society and carry men back to that state of "nature" which he conjured up in his imagination.

Summarizing his work, Dabney writes:

It was, of course, an absurd exaggeration in Napoleon to say that but for Rousseau the Revolution would not have taken place; for Rousseau, like every other individual, was a product of his time, and his writings a result of that revolutionary movement which they merely hastened and strengthened. Still, their influence, in a way, was prodigious. A letter written by Grimm, in 1754, says that the Dijon prize-essay produced a species of revolution at Paris. "It is impossible to express or imagine," says Hume, writing from Paris in 1765, "the enthusiasm of this nation in his favor; . . . no person ever so much engaged their attention as Rousseau. Voltaire and everybody else are quite eclipsed by him." The circulation of his books was enormous. When La Nouvelle Héloïse appeared, the booksellers were unable to meet the demand, but lent copies of it at so much a day or so much an hour. At first, as much as twelve sous an hour was paid per volume for the privilege of reading it. Painted with all the hues of a fervid imagination, and flaming with the fire of deep conviction, the romances of Rousseau produced upon all sentimental natures, and especially upon women, an indescribable effect. To him, more than to any other individual, it was due that the joys of domestic life were revealed anew to the upper classes in France, and that aristocratic mothers resumed that most beautiful of all maternal duties, the suckling of their own children. The brilliant salons no longer exercised such undisputed sway, but the pleasures of country life came into vogue, and even some of the upper nobles began to spend a part of the year upon their country estates. Return to nature and simplicity became the watchword. The style of architecture became simpler, and the old style of landscape gardening, with its long rectilinear avenues of artificial y trimmed box-bushes and trees, gave place to the more natural English style with irregular groups of trees growing with their natural ruggedness and strength. Thus the whole aspect of society became tinged

with the ideas of Rousseau. For Rousseau gave utterance, with amazing eloquence, to the thoughts that were suited to the radical spirit of the age.

255. La Chalotais's Essay on National Education

(Paris, 1763. Extracts taken from Compayré)

Louis René de Caradeuc de la Chalotais was a French magistrate and statesman, and one of the striking personalities of the pre-revolutionary period. In 1763 appeared La Chalotais's Essai d'éducation nationale, a practical and philosophical discussion of the problem of the education of a people. The volume was warmly approved by the political philosophers of the period; was translated into several languages; and was deeply influential later on in France in shaping the attitude of the State toward education. The following brief extracts give some idea as to La Chalotais's reasoning and proposals.

TEACHERS AND PURPOSE

I do not presume to exclude ecclesiastics, but I protest against the exclusion of laymen. I dare claim for the nation an education which depends only on the State, because it belongs essentially to the State; because every State has an inalienable and indefeasible right to instruct its members; because, finally, the children of the State ought to be educated by the members of the State.

It is certain that in the education which was given at Sparta, the prime purpose was to train Spartans. It is thus that in every State the purpose should be to enkindle the spirit of citizenship; and, in our case, to train Frenchmen, and in order to make Frenchmen, to labor to make men of them.

MORAL AND POLITICAL IDEAS

The greatest vice of education, and perhaps the most inevitable, while it shall be entrusted to persons who have renounced the world, is the absolute lack of instruction on the moral and political virtues. Our education does not affect our habits, like that of the ancients. After having endured all the fatigues and irksomeness of the college, the young find themselves in the need of learning in what consist the duties common to all men. They have learned no principle for judging actions, evils, opinions, customs. They have everything to learn on

matters that are so important. They are inspired with a devotion which is but an imitation of religion, and with practices which take the place of virtue, and are but the shadow of it.

NATURAL INSTRUCTION

I wish nothing to be taught children except facts which are attested by the eyes, at the age of seven as at the age of thirty.

The principles for instructing children should be those by which nature herself instructs them. Nature is the best of teachers.

Every method which begins with abstract ideas is not made for children.

Let children see many objects; let there be a variety of such, and let them be shown under many aspects and on various occasions. The memory and the imagination of children cannot be overcharged with useful facts and ideas of which they can make use in the course of their lives.

Most young men know neither the world which they inhabit, the earth which nourishes them, the men who supply their needs, the animals which serve them, nor the workmen and citizens whom they employ. They have not even any desire for this kind of knowledge. No advantage is taken of their natural curiosity for the purpose of increasing it. They know how to admire neither the wonders of nature nor the prodigies of the arts.

Education, according to La Chalotais, should be divided into two periods the first from five to ten years, and the second from ten to seventeen. For these two periods he would have studies, as follows:

STUDIES

First period. The exercises proposed for the first period are as follows: learning to read, write, and draw; dancing and music, which ought to enter into the education of persons above the commonalty; historical narratives and the lives of illustrious men of every country, of every age, and of every profession; geography, mathematical and physical recreations; the fables of La Fontaine, which, whatever may be said of them, ought not to be removed from the hands of children, but all of which they should be made to learn by heart; and besides this, walks, excursions, merriment, and recreations; I do not propose even the studies except as amusements.

Second period. The course of study for the second period should consist of French and Latin literature, or the humanities; a continuation of history, geography, mathematics, and natural history; criticism, logic, and metaphysics; the art of invention; and ethics. He would also add "the English language for science, and the German for war."