ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contrast between the respective agencies of art and nature in the work of education, and also the power of sentiment. The greatest educational event of the eighteenth century, before the expulsion of the Jesuits and the events of the French Revolution, is the publication of the Emile. The weakest part of the Emile is that which treats of the education of woman. Sophie, the perfect woman, has been educated only to complete the happiness of Emile. Rousseau has made striking statements of nearly all the problems of education, and lie has sometimes resolved with wisdom, and always with originality. The religion of nature is the one, in Rousseau's system, can be taught to the child, since the child is exactly the pupil of nature. Among the precursors of Rousseau, the first place is to the Abbe de Saint Pierre, his dominant idea is his anxiety in behalf of moral education.
