Education: Milton's Ideas and Ours

Author(s): William Riley Parker

Source: College English , Oct., 1962, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Oct., 1962), pp. 1-14
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/373840

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 COLLEGE ENGLISH
Volume 24 October 1962 Number 1

Education: Milton's Ideas and Ours*

WILLIAM: RILEY PARKER

Literary scholarship, all too often, is formers of Renaissance education. It will

a learned, levelling activity which allows be my purpose to correct scholarship
the mediocre to live comfortably with with scholarship, to restore Milton's
masterpieces. Run down most of a great reputation for originality, and to dem-
writer's "sources" and you can lose your onstrate that some of his ideas still merit
awe of him. Why should a poet be less our discussion, 318 years after they
a plagiarist than a scholar? Why praise were first published. By originality I
a Milton when you can bury him in his shall mean independence and creativity
milieu? of thought. I shall not mean that his
I begin this way, not only because I ideas had never before been expressed; I
have watched for some decades the ways shall mean only that his combination of
of little minds with great ones, but also ideas was unique,2 and that the emphasis
because my subject is John Milton's of that combination was not only counter
essay on education, a work much dis- to the tradition of his age, but counter
cussed and annotated nigh to death. J. also to the views of his most articulate
W. Adamson, in his Pioneers of Modern contemporaries who were trying to re-
Education, calls it "a negligible quantity form that tradition.3
in the history of pedagogy." Donald It is necessary, then, that we recall the
Lemen Clark, our best authority on the tradition. To generalize safely about ed-
curriculum of St. Paul's School, agrees; ucation during the English Renaissance,
in his perspective, Milton's ideas con- we must distinguish between what was
form closely to the humanistic tradition.
Convinced by Clark's argument, the re- 'Adamson, 1921 ed., p. 127; Clark, John Mil-
cent Yale edition of the essay (1959) ton at St. Paul's School (1948), p. 108; Donald
finds Milton largely idealizing his own C. Dorian, in Complete Prose Works of Milton,
ed. Ernest Sirluck, 11 (1959), 212-216. Quota-
grammar school training.' tions from Of Education are from this edition.
It was not always so. There was a time "Milton admits (Of Ed., p. 364) that he has
when Milton was named with Bacon, borrowed from "old renowned Authors," but
Montaigne, and Rabelais as realist-re- he borrowed a lot of particulars, not what was
essential to his plan (Sirluck, pp. 184-185).
*An address given at Indiana University, 12 'Sirluck demonstrates (Yale ed., p. 185) that
Oct. 1961. Footnotes have been added, and "none of Milton's ideas came from Comenius
the text modified slightly. and his followers," despite an impression to
the contrary encouraged by Masson, Foster
Mr. Parker, Distinguished Service Professor
Watson, et al. What Milton and the Comenians
at Indiana University, is the author of twohave in common is sometimes "an inescapable
books on Milton. From 1947 to 1956 he was commonplace; sometimes . . . a generalization
executive secretary of the Modern Languageconcealing differences more important than the
Association of America. agreement" (p. 205).
1

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 2 COLLEGE ENGLISH

happening in he
theentertained no higher an opinion. It
universities, a
in the secondary schools.
would be surprising, then, if his personal It's
talk about theviews on higher education bore any
universities; they
but little influence of the Renaissance.4
resemblance to what was taught in the
Medieval scholasticism, which had givenEnglish universities of his age. I have
birth to them, was now threatening,no such surprises to offer you. Milton
Medea-like, to strangle them. Despite would simply abolish Oxford and Cam-
mounting criticism, they introduced fewbridge.
modifications of the ancient curriculum, His attitude toward English second-
which was dominated by the study of
ary schools cannot be described so
logic and dialectic. Teaching was almostsimply. One reason is that, unlike the
exclusively in the hands of the clergy,universities, they had been influenced
who taught with the lay objective of by the Renaissance in some important
multiplying themselves. An important respects. Another reason is that they
part of all college and university exer-differed greatly-and Milton was for-
cises was the Latin disputation, a publictunate enough to have attended one of
debate on some harmless, unimportant the very best, St. Paul's School in Lon-
topic, in which youthful speakers dem- don, which taught Greek and Hebrew
onstrated their command of rhetoric, as well as Latin, and whose headmaster
logic, metaphysics, and a mass of un- had an interest in contemporary English
digested reading. No one studied sci- literature. Nevertheless, as we shall see,
ence, or any social science. A good deal Milton disapproved of much in the
of classical literature was read, but notgrammar school curricula, wanted to add
many new subjects, and wanted to
as belles-lettres; literature, too, was grist
for the scholastic mill. (A modern anal-change drastically the order in which
ogy might be the undergraduate English subjects were taught. In all the schools
course which is taught as though all the the Latin classics were the mainstay of
students were preparing to be researchstudy, the point being the transmission
scholars.) of a body of knowledge assumed to be
Milton went to Cambridge, studied useful and true. A boy was thoroughly
there for seven years, and hated the trained, therefore, in Latin grammar
whole experience.5 He went there in- (Lily's dominated the field); early and
tending to become a minister, and late he translated, paraphrased, memo-
changed his mind. He found "almost no rized, composed Latin declamations and
real companions in study," and of the verse, and analyzed the figures (some-
medieval curriculum he said, "the mind times even the meaning!) of classical
is neither delighted nor instructed, nor texts. He was required to speak only
indeed is any common good promoted." Latin, even at play.
Ten years after graduating M.A., he an- At its best this kind of education was
nounced publicly that as he had "never literary, humanistic, and classical, reviv-
greatly admired" Cambridge while a stu- ing the pedagogical traditions of Im-
dent, "so now much less." Of Oxford perial Rome. At its best it prepared men
for public affairs, as well as for the uni-
4My generalizations need qualifying, of versity. Though the mathematical arts
course; see, e.g., William T. Costello, S.J., The of the quadrivium were neglected or
Scholastic Curriculum at Early Seventeenth- ignored, there was apparent utility in
Century Cambridge (1958). the communication arts of the trivium:
'For a collection of his opinions, including
logic, rhetoric, and grammar-or, if you
those quoted, see James Holly Hanford, "Mil-
ton and the Universities," A Milton Handbookprefer, thinking, speaking, reading, and
(1946), pp. 355-364. writing. Since the universal aim was to

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 EDUCATION: MILTON'S IDEAS AND OURS 3

teach boys to write vacations.

LatinHeprose
probably did
and not object
to the occasional emphasis
verse correctly, the seven-year use of "a boyish rod of
correction"; adolescents
on grammar seemed justified, and rhet- accept a birch
society. He did deplore,
oric was, obviously, essential training however, the
for free citizens in aomission
civilized
of modernsociety
foreign languages,
(as Isocrates, Cicero, and Quintilian
and the neglect of music,had
mathematics,
and the sciences.
so well said). In the hands He objected also to
of a skillful
the endless themes
grammaticus, like Milton's and declamations;
Alexander
Gil, grammar shaded into one should not "make latins,"
rhetoric, andhe be-
rhetoric into logic, withlieved, until one
its arts ofhad something really
inven-
tio and dispositio. Meanwhile,
to say. Most of one read to the
all he objected
and relished Ovid and the Latin orators waste of time, the sheer inefficiency, in
and historians. Or, at least, Milton did. He
this educational system. It took seven
was no "whining schoolboy with his or eight long years, normally from age
satchel/And shining morning face, creep- seven to fourteen. Milton can hardly
ing like a snail/Unwillingly to school." have been a slow learner, but he himself
And it is worth remembering, as we was sixteen when he graduated and went
reflect on this outmoded classical educa- to college.
tion, that among its products were an There is temptation to say more about
astonishing number of English poetsthis fledgling poet as one of "Paul's
whom posterity would read and enjoy pigeons"; the subjects he studied, the
in the vernacular.
books he read, have been carefully re-
This fact is the more remarkable if constructed by Professors Clark and
we reflect on Renaissance education at Harris Fletcher; and thanks to the re-
searches of T. W. Baldwin, Arthur F.
its worst. At its worst this same subject
Leach, Foster Watson, and others, we
matter, somewhat less diverse, was taught
with a largely linguistic rather than know a great deal about the ways of
literary emphasis. In Bacon's famous English grammar schools in that period.
complaint, the pupils studied "words, But my theme is Milton's own contri-
and not matter." Language might butions
be to educational theory, their
limited to Latin; the imitation of classi-
historical significance, and their rele-
vance today. I turn, then, to Milton's
cal styles might be restricted to Cicero.
little tractate on education, a work of
The drills would seem sterile, the mem-
orizing of rules pointless. In a word,only 4,800 words, on eight closely
erudition would be absent. At its printed pages.
worst Renaissance education was train-
It is an extraordinary example of con-
ing in grammar and rhetoric for theircentrated writing, rewarding almost any
own sakes, a triumph of form over con-
amount of rereading. Unfortunately, it
tent, a betrayal of the ideals of humanistsis seldom reread. Most people, intimi-
like Vives and Erasmus.
dated by the mention of many unfamil-
At its worst or at its best, the sec-iar works in dead languages, hastily
ondary school of three centuries ago assume an utterly unrealistic curriculum.
had certain features which Milton felt Others complain that he attempts too
needed reforming. He did not object to much. To such readers I would say,
classes through the summer, or to the initially, that we must discuss what Mil-
hours-seven to eleven in the morning, ton chooses to discuss, not what he
one to five in the afternoon (in board- makes clear deserves separate treatment.
ing-schools the hours were even longer) Pre-school and elementary education,
-but he thought there should be more for example, he states "might be worth
flexibility in scheduling, including spring many considerations, if brevity had not

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 4 COLLEGE ENGLISH

been metic, Professional

scope."my and the elements of agriculture tra
for and conservation.9 Although
law
medicine, or hearithmetic
also e
would be
omits. He limits taught as though it
himself to were outl
a
game ("even playing,"
liberal arts program for Milton
boysputs it), wh
the textbook would
fully, will become, not be inonly
the foreign use
zens, but leaders. Like
language studied,'0 as would Plato
the several an
totle, like Elyot and after
textbooks on agriculture Mulcas
the rudi-
Peacham, he is
mentsconcerned
of grammar had been masteredwith
tion for public service.
and enough vocabulary acquired. This
Mean-
while the teacheranything
inhibits his saying would read to his stu- ab
tional education, which he indiscu
dents some inspirational classic the
later pamphlet.foreignIt language,
also translating
prevents as neces-
sary and explaining
course, from saying often, trusting to
anything ab
versal education
make them(an ambitiousidea
and eager to dear
learn.
menius and They would
his also be taught some Bible
disciples) or ab
education of women. One of Milton's stories. At the end of this one year of
omissions, on the other hand, is worth intensive study of the foreign language,
our noticing: he mentions the studythe of pupils would be "masters of any or-
metaphysics, only to drop it fromdinary his prose," and the scope of their
curriculum. reading could be broadened accordingly.
Here is the actual curriculum he out- The second year (age thirteen) would
see a continuation of work in arithmetic
lined in 1644 at the prompting of his
and agriculture, but would add geom-
friend Samuel Hartlib.6 He begins, no-
tice, not at age seven, but five years later,etry and an introduction to natural sci-
ence, the textbooks being in the foreign
bypassing the whole question of what
should happen in "petty school."'7language, of course. A few particular
subjects would also be introduced in an
The Curriculum elementary way: astronomy, with study
of celestial globes; geography, with
The first year of formal education
study of bilingual maps. Meanwhile a
(for youngsters of twelve)8 Milton
would devote to the learning of only"Milton first writes "between twelve, and
one and twenty," and later "from twelve to one
three things: a foreign language, arith-
and twenty" (pp. 379, 406). My reconstruction
of his curriculum is approximate only, for,
'Hartlib was an enthusiastic disciple of though he outlines the studies sequentially, he
Comenius. Sirluck argues (Yale ed., pp. 206- does not indicate ages or years.
212) that he had mistaken Milton for a 'It is sometimes supposed that Milton in-
Comenian and was therefore disappointed in cluded agriculture to please Hartlib, but in
Of Education, even refusing to publish it. But 1640-41 he had required his students to read
addressing Hartlib in the tract, Milton speaks books on agriculture, one more, in fact, than
of observations that "pleas'd you so well inhe mentions in 1644. Although noting that
the relating" (p. 366). There is also evidencePalladius was sometimes combined with Cato,
that Hartlib sent copies of Milton's tract to Varro, and Columella in the same volume,
John Dury and John Hall (French, Life Rec-Dorian (p. 388) does not note that Phillips
ords of Milton, 11, 104-105, 115-116). lists Palladius among the authors studied. That
Phillips read all four in a single volume is
'This is a tantalizing point, on which it seems
clear from his accounts of Varro, Columella,
impossible to throw any light. Normally the and Palladius in his Theatrum Poetarum (1675).
petty school program included reading and
writing English, and ciphering or casting ac- "We know this because Phillips named
counts. Since he leaves so much time for this three of the mathematical textbooks actually
program, Milton must have thought of it as studied. The use of games to learn arithmetic
including more; but what? Music? Drawing and geometry was endorsed by Plato and
and painting? Catechisms? referred to by Montaigne.

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 EDUCATION: MILTON'S IDEAS AND OURS 5

second foreign language literarywould

experiencebe they be-
would take field
gun, the method beingtripsthe andsame-a min-
talk with actual practitioners
imum of work with basic of thegrammar,
subjects they had studied, and
the
would listen
pupils putting the language to to these experts as some of
immediate
them
use in the acquisition of visited the classroom.
knowledge, the Thus, what
teacher reading to them,had seemed largely theoretical would be
and explaining,
some simple classic that would
translated, inspire
simultaneously, into the prac-
them to study. As they tical and the esthetic.
gained control
of this additional language, a new
In the fifth peda-
year (age sixteen) a third
gogical principle wouldforeign
come into play:
language-one closely related to
the language would bea language
used to now go over
mastered'2-would be
some familiar ground and
quickly confirm
acquired and put to use by
knowledge already obtained
reading a in the
history first
of its speakers.'3 The
foreign language, while adding
pupils would new
now be at the right age
information." to be introduced to ethical and moral
In the third year, using one or the problems-chiefly through the reading
other foreign language, the students of foreign classics in the original, but
(now fourteen) would read elementary, with the lessons of Christianity supplied,
introductory texts on meteorology, min- as needed, for antidote or balance. With
eralogy, botany, biology, and anatomy the principles of virtuous behavior
-tackled in this order. Notice that Mil- clearly grasped, the students could then
ton follows a sequence analogous begin to the study of household manage-
progress up the Great Chain of Being, ment and family life. Great drama deal-
from matter and plants to living crea- ing with these matters, either comedy
tures, the ultimate goal being, of course,or tragedy, would also be read and en-
"knowledge of God and things invisi- joyed-in any of three foreign lan-
ble." While studying these natural sci- guages.
ences, his pupils would also learn, notThere are four more years of this
an additional language, but trigonom- unusual curriculum to be described, but
etry; and this, like a foreign language, I pause at this point to tell you some-
they would also put to immediate use, thing that even Milton scholars often
acquiring the elements of-in this order forget or do not seem to realize. Most
-fortification, architecture, and either of what Milton has thus far advocated is
military engineering or navigation. All not theoretical. He does not say so, but
the textbooks, needless to say, would thisbe is almost exactly the curriculum he
in a foreign language. had followed in teaching his two neph-
The fourth year (age fifteen) would ews, John and Edward Phillips, and a
see a continuation of these studies with few other boys, from early 1640 to
only one new subject introduced, ap-June of 1644, when he put his scheme
plied medicine or hygiene. However,on paper. The proof of this is to be
two ingenious pedagogical devices wouldfound in Edward Phillips' notes written
now be employed. The students would
use their two foreign languages to read
"eThis is surely the reason for Milton saying:
a good deal of poetry-but all the poetry"either now, or before this, they may have
chosen would deal with things they hadeasily learnt at any odde hour the Italian
already learned. As a corollary to this tongue" (p. 397). Mastery of Latin made Italian
(and French) easy. Hebrew had to be gained
"at a set hour" (p. 400).
uMilton does not enunciate this principle, "1Milton does not say this, but Phillips names
but it is implied in the choice of texts tothebe book read (a fact not noticed by Dorian
read. in the Yale edition).

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 6 COLLEGE ENGLISH

for John tion and someand

Aubrey, maturity.'5
in He empha-
Edwa
more sizes account
detailed also that some of them deserve
in 169
fifty years later.
being memorized
It andisrecited.
not the
fact, that all these subjects
There are two wer
more years in this care-
in five years' fully
time. It
thought out is of
scheme not th
education,
a fact, that Milton
and they involvewas able
some surprises. to
Milton
pupils a working,
is building to a climax. In his eighth k
functional
of a foreign language in he
year (the pupils nineteen), a would
sing
time. It is also a them,
introduce fact in thisthat his
order, to logic,
were able, not many
to rhetoric, and to years late
poetics or theory of
a living as translators. In oth
literature. Renaissance education put
visionary as this curriculum
both logic and rhetoric earlier in the
sounded to you,
curriculum, but Milton
Milton would save was
about what, for the
them, once more most
for a practical purpose, par
actually done-and done
and he declares that with
he would teach
by no stretch of the imaginat
no more of logic than is really "usefull."
called exceptional or
The final year "gifted"
of this curriculum, then, c
He writes next about what he defi- would be devoted to but a single activity
-composition. "From hence and not till
nitely plans or vaguely hopes to do, and,
now," says Milton, the students will
again, we know for certain that the first
part of this was actually put into effect.
write.16 They will write because, at long
In the sixth year (the pupils now seven-
last, they will have something to write
teen) a fourth foreign language would
about, some basis for expressing opin-
be learned and, of course, put to ions,
im- and they will also have critical
mediate use. The subjects to be studied
judgment and taste. He was scornful of
the
(after a full year, remember, devoted to educational practices of his age,
ethics and economics) would be-in which
this compelled youngsters to write
significant order-political science when
and they obviously had nothing to say,
and no discriminating acquaintance with
citizenship, then law, and then theology
styles worthy of imitation. It was, he
and church history. As before, the read-
ing would chiefly be in foreign lan- says, "a preposterous exaction, forc-
guages. ing the empty wits of children to com-
With this background, the pupils pose Theams, verses, and Orations,
(aged eighteen) would be ready for which
a are the acts of ripest judgement
seventh year devoted entirely to the and the finall work of a head fill'd by
long reading, and observing ... These
study of great literature in the original
languages. They would read epics14 and are not matters to be wrung from poor
striplings, like blood out of the nose,
histories, political orations and tragedies.
They would read, of course, not only or the plucking of untimely fruit." His
with linguistic facility, by now well object,
de- please note, was not to produce
poets like himself, or professional
veloped, but also with intellectual
awareness and emotional involvement. writers, but rather to develop leaders
who could express themselves with elo-
Clearly, in Milton's view, literary master-
quence and logic and substance:
pieces demand of us adequate prepara-
15This is another reaction to his own ex-
1"Although Edward does not mention them,
perience. At St. Paul's School, typically, the
there is no reason to believe that the Phillips
boys did not study Homer and Virgil boys underread Virgil at 12, Homer at 14.
"6The following year (1645) Milton published
their uncle (cf. Dorian, pp. 400-401, n. 157).
his Poems, with 10 pieces explicitly noted as
Edward is deliberately listing only the unusual
authors studied. written at age 20 or earlier.

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 EDUCATION: MILTON'S IDEAS AND OURS 7

ing that
"whether they be to speak inthey were "scarce ever heard
Parliament
or counsell, honour and
of"attention would
in the "common publick Schools" of
the time.
be waiting on their lips. They are
There even less familiar
would
now, and,
then also appear in Pupits otherunlessvisages,
our interest is more in
other gestures, and stuffe
bibliographyotherwise
than in education, we can
wrought then what we leave in well-earned
now oblivion such
sit under,
oft times to as great a worthies
triall of as Giovanni
our pa- Villani, Quintus
tience as any other thatCalaber,
they and Christianus
preach Urstisius.
to If
us.", Milton were choosing textbooks for his
same curriculum in 1962, it is certain
Milton's teaching career, except for that the names would be very different,
some occasional tutoring of individuals though we would probably get some
after he became blind, began in 1640 equally ingenious selections.
and ended in the summer of 1647. He
So also with the foreign languages. It
never, therefore, carried his ideal cur-
is no surprise that, writing in 1644, Mil-
riculum through to its end. When the
ton elected to teach his pupils Latin,
culminating year of literary compo-Greek, and Hebrew, in that order; he
sition arrived, it was Milton, not his
had learned them thus at St. Paul's
pupils, who turned to writing. One School. Between Greek and Hebrew,
thing he undertook, we know, washowever,
a he included Italian. If we are
history of his country. I happen to be-
awed by the number of languages, and
lieve that he also discovered Aeschylus
the rapidity with which they were
and began a tragedy on the Greek soundly learned, we should notice that,
model, his Samson Agonistes. Indeed, after
it publishing his curriculum, Milton
may have been his teaching of tragedy decided to add a fifth-French, another
in 1646 to the Phillips boys and others
Romance tongue. We happen to know
that prompted him to make the attempt.this because his pupil, Edward Phillips,
But I stray from my subject. reports mastering these five languages
You will have noticed that, in out- under his uncle's tutelage in not quite
lining Milton's curriculum, I have men-
seven years. Later the Phillips boys
tioned no specific books or authors, and
seem to have picked up Spanish, another
have not indicated which foreign lan-
Romance language, quite easily on their
guages were studied. My omissions were
own. The point is that foreign languages,
deliberate; such matters are red herrings,
diverting our attention from the basic to Milton, were chiefly means to an
philosophy and method of his peda- end; they are, he writes, "but the in-
gogy. Take the books, the very titlesstrument convaying to us things usefull
of which frighten so many modern to be known." You study, therefore,
those languages in which are written
readers. They were chosen for their ap-
propriate content as introductory textsthings you want to know.'8 If he were
or surveys and, when possible (it was choosing the languages in 1962, who can
not always possible), for their literary
doubt that he would weigh seriously the
style. They were by both old and mod- importance of German and Russian, and
ern authors. Fifty years later, one perhaps
of Chinese and Sanskrit?
the pupils remembered, and named,
twenty-seven of the authors,"' remark-
"Here also Milton differed from the Co-
menians. They agreed in minimizing grammar,
"Excluding Ames, Wolleb, and parts of in the
regarding language as an instrument, and in
Bible, which Phillips also named. Dorian has faster results; but Comenius required
getting
Phillips listing only 21 writers (Yale ed., p.
memorization of a specially prepared com-
371).
pilation, not reading of original authors.

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 8 COLLEGE ENGLISH

What is most remarkable and chal- vided by an even more practical feature,
lenging about Milton's curriculum-of
military training. The boys read books
on battles and sieges, on tactics and
many remarkable and challenging things
-is its degree of integration and progres-
strategy-books in foreign languages, of
sion. It is not a series of unrelated or courselg-and then went out and prac-
loosely related subjects; it is a "method-
tised what they had learned, making a
icall course." Everything contributesgame
to of it. Milton wrote in a time of civil
something else; it builds toward a clearly
war, when lack of discipline and leader-
defined goal, and nothing is irrelevant
ship were current anxieties, but it seems
or peripheral to that goal. Woven certain
into that he would have included
the whole scheme are other admirable military science in any case, for educa-
pedagogical principles-motivation and tion should fit a man "to perform justly,
reinforcement; attention to character skilfully and magnanimously all the of-
development; periodical review; progres-
fices both private and publike of peace
sion from easy to hard, from concrete and war." A key to this "new frontier"
to abstract-but these, in our perspective,
was physical fitness. Short as his essay on
lack novelty, whereas the tight textureeducation is, Milton devotes a good deal
and bold efficiency of his curriculum of space to exercise, and even discusses
challenge us to re-examine our best cur-
the right kind of diet.
rent practices. A basic premise of his
Other features of his educational
argument-that far too much timetheory
is we may mention by way of re-
wasted in education-might have beenmarking what his contemporaries would
enunciated this afternoon, and will be
have considered unique or most unusual.
echoed by many tomorrow. Did he Very hit few Renaissance writers on educa-
on a workable solution? Can we still
tion, for example, had given considera-
learn from him?
tion to the discovery and development
Before I give my personal answers oftoindividual aptitudes, but Milton
these questions, let me tell you stresses
more the need for doing this, and be-
about his plan, for there was more to that field trips will contribute to
lieves
it than the academic curriculum. At the process.20 Whereas many Renais-
every stage of the learning process sance
thereschools introduced literature
was emphasis on music, not only music
chiefly to illustrate grammatical rules,
appreciation, but actual playingMilton
and reverts to the original humanistic
singing. An early biographer reports
position of Elyot, Erasmus, and Colet,
that he made his pupils "Songsters,elevating
and literature to a position of great
sing from the time they were with him."
importance, and subordinating grammar.
He believed strongly in the civilizing
In this respect he differs also from con-
and therapeutic effects of music; he even
temporary educational reformers like
thought it an aid to digestion, and there-
fore made time for it both before and Comenius and his followers, who would
use especially prepared digests and com-
after the noonday meal. It followed, as
pilations; Milton prefers, whenever pos-
a matter of fact, a regular morning pe-
riod of exercise, and this too was made
as practical as possible; Milton recom-"Milton does not say this, but Phillips names
mended fencing, at which he him- some of the books.
20Of Ed., p. 413.
self was skillful (he practised daily, Earlier, in his Common-
place Book, Milton had written: "The nature
and always wore a sword before he lost
of each person should be especially observed
his sight), and also wrestling, a good
and not bent in another direction; for God
English sport with a potential of prac-
does not intend all people for one thing, but
for
ticality. Additional exercise was pro- each one his own work."

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 EDUCATION: MILTON'S IDEAS AND OURS 9

sible, to have studentsand read classics.

discussed it thoroughlyAswith them.22
we have seen, he would also
After aboutintroduce
five years of this,23 he
mathematics early and teach
started composing it his
thor-
own "System of
oughly, and in this he Divinity,"
would his seem
De DoctrinatoChristiana,
be unique. His religiousdictating it in parts aims
and moral to his students, who
in education would have been univer- were then studying (you may recall)
sally applauded, but his use of secular Hebrew and "the highest matters of
classical studies to achieve these aims Theology." It was at this time that Mil-
would have shocked many readers. Also ton first realized that his eyesight was
a novelty in England of 1644 was
failing.a
feature which we are likely to pass
I should like to offer a few purely
over without interest: he wants a na-
biographical speculations about Milton's
tional educational system, with his cur-
curriculum. If we could somehow dis-
riculum adopted in at least one schoolcover when his sister Anne died, we
or academy in every town of any size.
might have the explanation of why he
The Miltonic academy is still a dream,
embarked upon private teaching and
and may forever remain so. He visualizes
thus came to theorize about education.
it as "a spatious house and ground . . .
His nephews were aged about nine and
big enough to lodge a hundred and fifty
persons," about twenty of whom would when they came to live with him,
ten
but his plan of formal education begins
constitute the faculty-a teacher-student
ratio, notice, of about one to six or with youngsters aged twelve. Did he
seven. His ideal academy would com- discover that his nephews were too
bine secondary school and college; there young for his curriculum? Or was he
would be no pedagogical worries about reasoning from his personal experience?
"articulation"-and both Oxford and Elsewhere he tells us that, from the
Cambridge could go out of business! time he was twelve, he usually studied
The students' day would start at until
six,midnight. His brother Christopher
remembered this, and associated John's
and there would always be something
to busy their bodies or minds untillate hours (the parents made a nurse
bed-
stay up with him) with his going to
time; Milton clearly preferred evenings
St. Paul's School. On the other hand,
for any kind of religious teaching.21
There would be few holidays; he Milton
com- was twenty-nine when he trav-
plained of "too oft idle vacancies"; elled
theyabroad, but in his essay on educa-
wasted time. There was school on Sat- tion he recommends foreign travel, not
urdays, and every Sunday, we know,upon graduation, but later, at the age
Milton read his pupils a chapter of the of twenty-three. Is it only coincidence
New Testament (in Greek, of course)that he himself was twenty-three when
he left Cambridge and returned home?
"At St. Paul's School the mornings beganIs it only coincidence that in the year
with religious teaching. when he was teaching his students about
.Phillips tells us this. But cf. Dorian: "Mil-
family life, he was writing pamphlets
ton postpones this Biblical study until the boys
are more nearly mature . . . and advocates on marriage and divorce? Are the Latin
grammar that he wrote, and his little
immediate application of Greek to secular
authors" (p. 390; cf. p. 399). book on logic, direct offshoots of his
"3The many scholars who have tried to date
teaching? This, of course, has been sus-
the inception of the De Doctrina Christiana
have somehow overlooked this important bit pected;
of but it has not previously been
evidence.
noticed that Edward Phillips speaks of

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 10 COLLEGE ENGLISH

"his Writings" in
perfect age giving an
for seeing issues freshly and acco
his pedagogy.24directly, for expressing convictions with-
out debilitating
Now, to get back to concern
our over whether
subject,
kind of a teacher
or notwas
they wereMilton hims
practicable. He was
anything to bethen learned
thirty-five. In much that
from he had h
written
sonal practices, in previous years,
quite apartup to and fro
including
curriculum? Let one age thirty-four,
of his he had pupils
spoken
self-consciously
the answer to this of his youth, his im-
question. Milto
tells us, set maturity,
an the "green years" stillexamp
inspiring upon
"hard his head.
Study"; he He was never to do"perpet
was so again.
busied in his own Laborious Undertak- The first edition of his essay on educa-
ings of the Book or Pen." Moreover, tion was privately and anonymously
"neither his Converse ... nor his manner printed, and had a limited circulation;
of Teaching ever savour'd in the leastbut he reprinted it under his name, un-
any thing of Pedantry." If this last re-changed, almost thirty years later, when
mark seems vague, a comment by an-he was sixty-four. It is a document, I
other early biographer will clarify it.submit, to be taken seriously, even to-
His way of education was severe, saysday.
John Aubrey, but "he was most famil- For example, was he not psycholog-
iar and free in his conversation" with
ically right in arguing that formal edu-
cation should be "laborious indeed at
his pupils. Milton himself remarks that
the first ascent," and afterwards easier
if a teacher wishes to have eager, dili-
and more pleasant? He insists that the
gent students, fear helps, persuasion helps
much more, but personal example helpsfirst two or three years are the critical
ones; it is then that the young students
most of all. Perhaps that is why he con-
will lay well "their grounds," learning
cludes his essay by saying that the kind
that
of education he is advocating is not a education is a hard and serious
bow for every man to shoot with "that matter. Until they learn this, until they
counts himselfe a teacher; but will have
re- acquired sound habits of study,
and until they have the essential tools of
quire sinews almost equall to those which
Homer gave Ulysses." The man who mathematics and two foreign languages,
wrote this had a Penelope who had lefthe will not even allow them the spring
him; it is rumored that she found vacations
his and pleasant excursions into
the country that the older students reg-
concentration on study "irkesome," and
ularly enjoy. The beginners can look
"often-times heard his Nephews beaten,
and cry." But one of those nephews, forward to these things as rewards, but
they must first prove themselves real
years later, had nothing but praise for
"his excellent judgment and waystudents.
of This concept of education is
Teaching, far above the Pedantry what
of I should want to mean by "life-
common publick Schools." adjustment."
When he published his theories onWas he not basically right also in
educational reform, Milton was at a considering science and mathematics
among the humanities (that is, the pur-
suits proper to mankind), in insisting on
"4Phillips says that "neither his Converse, nor
his Writings, nor his manner of Teaching anever
over-view of many sciences, and in
stressing
savour'd in the least any thing of Pedantry." a thorough knowledge of
Phillips may refer to the pamphlets of 1641-45,
mathematics early in education, with
but the context does not encourage this inter-
ample
pretation. Milton's grammar and logic are no-
application of it at later stages?
Dr. Johnson
where mentioned explicitly in Phillips' biog- was shocked by this heresy
raphy. of Milton's: "the truth," he protested,

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 EDUCATION: MILTON'S IDEAS AND OURS 11

"is that the knowledgegrounds of speech" and

of external "distinct and
na-
ture, and the sciences which that knowl-
cleer pronuntiation" for a reading ob-
edge requires or includes, are
jective. He not
insists that the
a working knowl-
great or the frequent edge of a new language
business of the must be ac-
human mind." To this quired in a single year, and must be
pronouncement
put immediately to
I can imagine Milton replying, profitable use. He
"Ah,
Samuel, but they should would
be!" giveAnd
little time to grammar-and
I, for
one, would agree. Milton none at all to composition
missed mathe- or transla-
matics in his own education tion. The aimand, after
is direct comprehension,
seven years at Cambridge, so that learning
took can occur.
steps toHear him on
remedy the deficiency. the purpose was
There of language
noth-study: "though
ing casual or theoreticala linguist about should
this pride
em-himselfe to have
phasis in his ideal curriculum. Can
all the tongues that Babelwe
cleft the world
not still learn from him? into, yet, if he have not studied the solid
Was he not right, too, in his attitudes things in them as well as the words
toward literature? Does not appreciationand lexicons, he were nothing so much
of great literature require, not only to be esteem'd a learned man, as any
some maturity of years and experience,yeoman or tradesman competently wise
but also careful, coherent, persistentin his mother dialect only." One learns
preparation? Should not the selection ofa foreign language, moreover, in order
belles-lettres, at each stage, be deter-to know the "experience and tradition"
of another culture. Did Milton believe
mined by the student's known knowl-
in "area studies"? Hear him in another
edge, or by his related studies? Should
not the world's masterpieces be read in work: "The study of Geography is both
their original languages? And, in order profitable and delightfull; but the Writ-
to cultivate a feeling for style, shoulders thereof, though some of them exact
not textbooks in all disciplines be chosen,enough in setting down Longitudes and
so far as possible, for their felicity of ex- Latitudes, yet in those other relations
pression and enduring importance? The of Manners, Religion, Government and
famous Comenius wanted to codify allsuch like . . . have for the most part
knowledge into systems and factual state-miss'd their proportions. Some too brief
ments, for ease in memorization. To Mil-and deficient satisfy not." Milton rarely
ton this anticipation of "teaching criticizes without being prepared to
machines" and programmed learning wasshow what should be done; the words
simply anathema. Of what value knowl-I have just quoted are from his history
edge if, in acquiring it, one sacrificedof Russia (Columbia ed.,. x, 327),.
intellectual idealism and love of the noble Many of us would agree, I think, that
-and the beautiful? Education: is an ex- formal education takes too- long, but,
citing feast; we must not be metra-callous unlike Milton, we do not question
about it. The reading of literature is not boldly out medieval inheritance of six
the crown of Milton's curriculum; it is years of secondary school (why six?),
rather its life blood. Digests and compi- four of college (why four?), and three
lations and collections have no place in of graduate school (why -three?). All
humane learning; they are a seeming these he would reduce to nine, and- he
efficiency that is ultimately wasteful. Can makes it clear why it should be nine,
we ever agree with this view? with a singles sequential, progressive-cur-
Was he not right, in any case, about riculum. At each level, the teacher
the study of foreign languages? Indeed, would be able to make confident as-
are we not, at last, on the verge of sumptions, and then build on them. In
realizing it? He emphasizes "preparatory current American education this is im-

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12 COLLEGE ENGLISH

possible anydoubtless
level,because the
at be very it
idea would
high
college, even
have struck him or
graduate
as preposterous, which, sc
if you remember
learning occurs, it is yourbyLatin, means
helter
multiplication'putting
of the last thing foremost.' You
knowledge, no
elect after you are educated;
orderly accumulation, with you don't
one
get educated by making uninformed
knowledge contributing to anot
choices, telling
latter can happen toyour teacher whatexten
some edu-
cation is. No
tain disciplines, one knew better
like than Mil-
chemistr
certainly doeston that
notmuch of education
happen is inefficient in
and ineffectual,
(where it could and but it would never have hap
should
occurred to him
more to the point, inthat efficiency
education and
a whole. Wheneffectiveness
I spoke would resultof
from letting
these
at a large NEA conference
the student determine the program. Au- last
went on to say this:
thority, he As is a
says in Areopagitica, "the teac
graduate students
life of teaching."in English,
In our democracy, for
not one singlea variety of reasons, we have recently I ca
assumption
believed otherwise. Introduced
about either knowledge or very skill
acquired. I cannot
early at Williamassume
and Mary and the Uni- a sin
read by everyone in the
versity of Virginia, my class;
elective system
finally gainedof
assume knowledge generalthe
acceptancesimpl
after
nical term orEliot's
thereforms at Harvard in the 1870's.
simplest Bib
An ever-increasing
or myth or fairy tale proliferation
or piece of new
subjects andI
dren's literature. courses followed-and itassu
cannot is
thing except now that
difficult to I
say have a job
whether this frag-
mentation
quite needlessly of knowledge has been cause
difficult.25
Let's look at it in the
or effect of system's perpetuation.
another way.
One thing
we give a certificate or only seems certain:
a asdegre
insti-
tutions get bigger, the situation
say of the recipient only will gettha
taken a certain number of courses and worse. Both in the colleges and in the
high schools it has compelled us to
has spent a certain number of hours in
classrooms. We cannot describe him; spawn an entirely new breed of ed-
we cannot define the product of our ucator, the counselling and guidance ex-
system except vaguely and hopefully. pert. Since the youngster is uninformed,
he must now talk to an uninformed
We have required study of a few spe-
cific fields along the way, but for the adult, who can explain to him that
most part we have been democratic three years of English are required
only
indeed, holding it self-evident that forall graduation from high school, and
courses are created equal, endowed by that, if he is going into business, he will
their creators with the power to edu- never have need of a foreign language.
The Government spends millions of
cate. But we are also a bit mystical about
this, believing that with 122 hours dollars
of annually on counselling and
almost indiscriminate exposure, some- guidance institutes, and many efforts are
thing happens to the student, and we being made to multiply these academic
can happily pronounce him bachelor of middlemen, who are in great demand.
arts or science-meaning,.I take it, thatThis, Milton would remind us, is what
he is not wedded to either. happens when you abdicate responsi-
bility for defining education, and dish
Milton says nothing about electives,
it out cafeteria-style.
"See my "Refocusing the English Program,"My talking this way may strike you
The NEA Journal, L (Nov. 1961), 38-40. as nostalgic nonsense, since, clearly,

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 EDUCATION: MILTON'S IDEAS AND OURS 13

knowledge has increased, and,

States-rights despite
attitude had developed, and
experiments with "core curricula"
persists today. Nationaland
coordination was
essential,
such, there can be no real but it must
turning not be Federal
back.
But if we wish to use them, there
coordination, are
for this might mean "Fed-
ways of doing it, anderal England's most
control." Coordination by scattered
consent,most
eloquent defender of liberty, then, isardent
what we have had for
foe of totalitarianism,a hundred
has told years and
us more-and
one. the re-
Unfortunately, even to sults you lknow.
mention There
it in ouris the wildest
disparity
present climate of opinion is toin standards-of
invite at- accreditation,
of certification, of salaries,
tack, not only from conservatives, but of curricula,
even from most liberals. Milton wanted a and of classroom teaching. Move an
national educational system, with a com-American child from one city or one
mon curriculum and, presumably, with State to another, and you encounter
minimum standards nationally accepted.26 this chaos. As the Saturday Review has
Why does the very idea of this scan- said, "The most important fact about
dalize most Americans? Few of those America's educational system is that it
does not exist."
who would immediately object can ex-
But is the education of our children
plain the legal basis of our present, de-
centralized system. Public education ahas
legitimate national concern? Is the
guaranteeing of minimal standards of
become the responsibility of the fifty
States, which have, each in turn, dele-
education a proper business of the Fed-
eral Government?
gated certain powers to more than Milton's answer would
50,000 local school boards. But it was be "yes."
never planned so, never voted so. There I confess to giving undue emphasis to
is nothing in the Constitution about it, this one part of Milton's scheme. He
even by implication; for the most part, does not argue for a national system;
it just happened. As a consequence, to he simply proposes it, very briefly. He
achieve the small degree of uniformity probably knew that the idea had the
and coordination that now obtains, theresanction of Martin Luther, Melanchthon,
have been an endless number of confer-
and other respectable people. It never
ences and struggles for mutual agree-occurred to him that it would take his
ment at the national and regional levels.
own country exactly 300 years to get
They still go on, with results differing
teacher-training under the supervision of
from region to region, from Stateato national Board of Education, and that
State. We have had to create a vast,
one of England's rebellious colonies
complicated network of national non-
would take even longer. Fighter for
governmental organizations to deal with
freedom that he was, Milton did not
the many problems. A National Educa-live to enjoy the blessings of liberty,
tion Association was founded in 1857,
among which is the right of the gov-
but when, ten years later, the Congress
erned to doubt the intelligence and
established a U. S. Office of Education
integrity of all public officials.
(in the Department of the Interior, nat-
Nor did Milton live to see any of his
urally!), its activities were largely
theories of education alter the status
limited to fact-gathering and the giving
quo. I cannot with any precision tell
of advice when asked. A fiercely jealous
you what influence those theories have
2"Sirluck says: "there can be no doubt thathad since. My object has been simply
the instrument of this public benefit is to to be
make you aware of their breadth and
private initiative" (p. 194); but Milton does not
say so, and in 1659 he argued explicitly for independence and interest, and to sug-
state-supported schools. gest that, by discussing them today, we

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 14 COLLEGE ENGLISH

can gain a provocative perspec

let us share his re
our own problems.
cation Let
to us
theemu
kn
courage in holding
Above fast all, to let what
us t
Let us borrow ourselves
his about what concerns us so
refreshing bo
along with hisclosely.scorn of mere n

Moral Perspective in
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
ROBERT C. SCHWEIK

The "very meaning" of Tess of the clearly related to the impression it

D'Urbervilles, J. O. Bailey has recently renders.2 But it is as unnecessary, I
observed, is that "Tess, though impure think, to conclude that many passages in
in act, was a pure woman in the tend- Tess of the D'Urbervilles are structural
encies of her mind and heart." Equally excrescences as it is mistaken to assume
explicit generalizations about the ethical that one or another of them epitomizes
implications of the novel have been ex- Hardy's defense of Tess.
pressed by earlier commentators-that Consider, for example, a group of
Hardy's defense of Tess was a "frank comments which come near the con-
appeal to the law of nature," for exam- clusion of the novel, when Angel Clare
ple, or that Hardy was preaching a begins to question the basis for his judg-
"superior moral law" through the mouth ment of Tess:
of the repentant Angel Clare.1 To find Having long discredited the old sys-
language in Tess which seems to sup- tems of mysticism, he now began to
port some general moral argument is discredit the old appraisements of moral-
certainly not difficult, for although ity. He thought they wanted readjusting.
Who was the moral man? Still more
Hardy insisted that the novel was an
pertinently, who was the moral woman?
"impression," scattered through it are
(432)3
passages which can be read almost as
though they were abstract propositions An answer to Clare's question follows at
in ethics. In fact, some recent critics like once-or, rather, a series of answers, and
Dorothy Van Ghent and G. D. Klingo- each from a different point of view.
pulos have concluded that is exactly what Angel Clare himself sees moral reality
such passages often are-abstract "bits in the private history of Tess's mind and
of philosophic adhesive tape" loosely answers his own question by concluding
attached to the surface of the novel and that the "beauty or ugliness of a char-
neither integral with its structure noracter lay not only in its achievements,

'See J. O. Bailey, "Hardy's Visions of the
Self," Studies in Philology 56 (Jan. 1959), 91;
Joseph Warren Beach, The Technique of
Thomas Hardy (Chicago, 1922), p. 209; and
Harvey Curtis Webster, On a Darkling Plain
(Chicago, 1947), p. 180.
Robert C. Schweik is an assistant professor
of English, Marquette University.
'See Dorothy Van Ghent, The English Novel
(New York, 1953), pp. 196-7; and G. D.
Klingopulos, "Hardy's Tales Ancient and
Modern," From Dickens to Hardy, ed. Boris
Ford (Penguin Books, 1958), p. 416.
"All quotations are from Tess of the D'Uber-
villes, ed. Albert J. Guerard (New York, 1950),
and page numbers are inserted parenthetically
in the text.

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