oremost places in our literature; which deal with
philosophy, with ethics, with theology; but they concern themselves
with the manner of directing young men and women, and no longer with
childhood. The author conducts his Emile even as far as to his
betrothal; he devotes an entire book to the betrothed herself, Sophie,
and closes his volume only after he has united them in marriage.

We will not go so far. We will leave Emile upon the confines of youth,
at the time when he escapes from school, and when he is about beginning
to feel that he is a man. At this difficult and critical period the
teacher no longer suffices. Then, above all things, is needed all the
influence of the family; the father's example, the mother's
clear-sighted tenderness, worthy friendships, an environment of
meritorious people, of upright minds animated by lofty ideas, who
attract within their orbit this ardent and inquisitive being, eager for
novelty, for action, and for independence.

Artifices and stratagems are then no longer good for anything; they are
very soon laid open to the light. All that can be required of a
teacher is that he shall have furnished his pupils with a sound and
strong education, drawn from the sources of reason, experience, and
nature; that he shall have prepared them to learn to form judgments, to
make use of their faculties, to enter valiantly upon study and upon
life. It seems to us that the pages of Rousseau here published may be
a useful guide in the pursuit of such a result.

JULES STEEG.

BOOK FIRST.

The first book, after some general remarks upon education, treats
especially of early infancy; of the first years of life; of the care to
be bestowed upon very young children; of the nursing of them, of the
laws of health.

He makes education begin at birth; expresses himself on the subject of
the habits to be given or to be avoided; discusses the use and meaning
of tears, outcries, gestures, also the language that should be used
with young children, so that, from their tenderest years, the
inculcating of false ideas and the giving a wrong bent of mind may be
avoided.

GENERAL REMARKS.

The Object of Education.

Coming from the hand of the Author of all things, everything is good;
in the hands of man, everything degenerates. Man obliges one soil to
nourish the productions of another, one tree to bear the fruits of
another; he mingles and confounds climates, elements, seasons; he
mutilates