sseau says of _Emile_ at
twelve years of age, "that he has not learned to distinguish his right
hand from his left." Books are entirely proscribed, and, indeed, they
are useless to him as he cannot read; the only intellectual knowledge
the child receives is that which comes from things through his own
experience.

This is a brief outline of the erratic, impossible, and inconsistent
training that Rousseau provides for _Emile_ during this period when the
foundation of character in the child must be laid. Greard says,
"Rousseau goes beyond progressive education to recommend an education
in fragments, so to speak, which isolates the faculties in order to
develop them one after another, which establishes an absolute line of
demarkation between the different ages, and which ends in distinguishing
three stages of progress in the soul. Rousseau's error on this point is
in forgetting that the education of the child ought to prepare for the
education of the young man."

(_d_) The third period extends from the twelfth to the fifteenth year.
It is the period of intellectual development. With no habits of thought
or study, being little else than a robust animal, in three years _Emile_
is to obtain all needed intellectual training. True, Rousseau excludes
everything that is not useful, and places limitations even on that. For
example, he naturally lays great stress upon the physical sciences which
are to be taught in connection with things themselves,--out of doors, by
travel, and in actual life; but he allows no history, or grammar, or
ancient languages. No books are permitted save "Robinson Crusoe," which
Rousseau finds entirely suitable for _Emile_. A trade is to be learned
during this period.

While in general we condemn Rousseau's scheme of education, there is
much in his methods that is most excellent. On this point Compayre
comments as follows: "At least in the general method which he commends,
Rousseau makes amends for the errors in his plan of study: 'Do not treat
the child to discourses which he cannot understand. No descriptions, no
eloquence, no figures of speech. Be content to present to him
appropriate objects. Let us transform our sensations into ideas. But let
us not jump at once from sensible to intellectual objects. Let us always
proceed slowly from one sensible notion to another. In general, let us
never substitute the sign for the thing, except when it is impossible
for us to show the thing.'"[125]

(_e_) The