第 24 节
作者:嘟嘟      更新:2021-04-30 16:07      字数:9322
  afterwards in several other cities。 The state; however; seems
  never to have encouraged them further than by assigning some of
  them a particular place to teach in; which was sometimes done;
  too; by private donors。 The state seems to have assigned the
  Academy to Plato; the Lyceum to Aristotle; and the Portico to
  Zeno of Citta; the founder of the Stoics。 But Epicurus bequeathed
  his gardens to his own school。 Till about the time of Marcus
  Antonius; however; no teacher appears to have had any salary from
  the public; or to have had any other emoluments but what arose
  from the honoraries or fees of his scholars。 The bounty which
  that philosophical emperor; as we learn from Lucian; bestowed
  upon one of the teachers of philosophy; probably lasted no longer
  than his own life。 There was nothing equivalent to the privileges
  of graduation; and to have attended any of those schools was not
  necessary; in order to be permitted to practise any particular
  trade or profession。 If the opinion of their own utility could
  not draw scholars to them; the law neither forced anybody to go
  to them nor rewarded anybody for having gone to them。 The
  teachers had no jurisdiction over their pupils; nor any other
  authority besides that natural authority; which superior virtue
  and abilities never fail to procure from young people towards
  those who are entrusted with any part of their education。
  At Rome; the study of the civil law made a part of the
  education; not of the greater part of the citizens; but of some
  particular families。 The young people; however; who wished to
  acquire knowledge in the law; had no public school to go to; and
  had no other method of studying it than by frequenting the
  company of such of their relations and friends as were supposed
  to understand it。 It is perhaps worth while to remark; that
  though the Laws of the Twelve Tables were; many of them; copied
  from those of some ancient Greek republics; yet law never seems
  to have grown up to be a science in any republic of ancient
  Greece。 In Rome it became a science very early; and gave a
  considerable degree of illustration to those citizens who had the
  reputation of understanding it。 In the republics of ancient
  Greece; particularly in Athens; the ordinary courts of justice
  consisted of numerous; and therefore disorderly; bodies of
  people; who frequently decided almost at random; or as clamour;
  faction; and party spirit happened to determine。 The ignominy of
  an unjust decision; when it was to be divided among five hundred;
  a thousand; or fifteen hundred people (for some of their courts
  were so very numerous); could not fall very heavy upon any
  individual。 At Rome; on the contrary; the principal courts of
  justice consisted either of a single judge or of a small number
  of judges; whose characters; especially as they deliberated
  always in public; could not fail to be very much affected by any
  rash or unjust decision。 In doubtful cases such courts; from
  their anxiety to avoid blame; would naturally endeavour to
  shelter themselves under the example or precedent of the judges
  who had sat before them; either in the same or in some other
  court。 This attention to practice and precedent necessarily
  formed the Roman law into that regular and orderly system in
  which it has been delivered down to us; and the like attention
  has had the like effects upon the laws of every other country
  where such attention has taken place。 The superiority of
  character in the Romans over that of the Greeks; so much remarked
  by Polybius and Dionysius of Halicarnassus; was probably more
  owing to the better constitution of their courts of justice than
  to any of the circumstances to which those authors ascribe it。
  The Romans are said to have been particularly distinguished for
  their superior respect to an oath。 But the people who were
  accustomed to make oath only before some diligent and
  well…informed court of justice would naturally be much more
  attentive to what they swore than they who were accustomed to do
  the same thing before mobbish and disorderly assemblies。
  The abilities; both civil and military; of the Greeks and
  Romans will readily be allowed to have been at least equal to
  those of any modern nation。 Our prejudice is perhaps rather to
  overrate them。 But except in what related to military exercises;
  the state seems to have been at no pains to form those great
  abilities; for I cannot be induced to believe that the musical
  education of the Greeks could be of much consequence in forming
  them。 Masters; however; had been found; it seems; for instructing
  the better sort of people among those nations in every art and
  science in which the circumstances of their society rendered it
  necessary or convenient for them to be instructed。 The demand for
  such instruction produced what it always produces… the talent for
  giving it; and the emulation which an unrestrained competition
  never fails to excite; appears to have brought that talent to a
  very high degree of perfection。 In the attention which the
  ancient philosophers excited; in the empire which they acquired
  over the opinions and principles of their auditors; in the
  faculty which they possessed of giving a certain tone and
  character to the conduct and conversation of those auditors; they
  appear to have been much superior to any modern teachers。 In
  modern times; the diligence of public teachers is more or less
  corrupted by the circumstances which render them more or less
  independent of their success and reputation in their particular
  professions。 Their salaries; too; put the private teacher; who
  would pretend to come into competition with them; in the same
  state with a merchant who attempts to trade without a bounty in
  competition with those who trade with a considerable one。 If he
  sells his goods at nearly the same price; he cannot have the same
  profit; and at least; if not bankruptcy and ruin; will infallibly
  be his lot。 If he attempts to sell them much dearer; he is likely
  to have so few customers that his circumstances will not be much
  mended。 The privileges of graduation; besides; are in many
  countries necessary; or at least extremely convenient; to most
  men of learned professions; that is; to the far greater part of
  those who have occasion for a learned education。 But those
  privileges can be obtained only by attending the lectures of the
  public teachers。 The most careful attendance upon the ablest
  instructions of any private teacher cannot always give any title
  to demand them。 It is from these different causes that the
  private teacher of any of the sciences which are commonly taught
  in universities is in modern times generally considered as in the
  very lowest order of men of letters。 A man of real abilities can
  scarce find out a more humiliating or a more unprofitable
  employment to turn them to。 The endowment of schools and colleges
  have; in this manner; not only corrupted the diligence of public
  teachers; but have rendered it almost impossible to have any good
  private ones。
  Were there no public institutions for education; no system;
  no science would be taught for which there was not some demand;
  or which the circumstances of the times did not render it either
  necessary; or convenient; or at least fashionable; to learn。 A
  private teacher could never find his account in teaching either
  an exploded and antiquated system of a science acknowledged to be
  useful; or a science universally believed to be a mere useless
  and pedantic heap of sophistry and nonsense。 Such systems; such
  sciences; can subsist nowhere; but in those incorporated
  societies for education whose prosperity and revenue are in a
  great measure independent of their reputation and altogether
  independent of their industry。 Were there no public institutions
  for education; a gentleman; after going through with application
  and abilities the most complete course of education which the
  circumstances of the times were supposed to afford; could not
  come into the world completely ignorant of everything which is
  the common subject of conversation among gentlemen and men of the
  world。
  There are no public institutions for the education of women;
  and there is accordingly nothing useless; absurd; or fantastical
  in the common course of their education。 They are taught what
  their parents or guardians judge it necessary or useful for them
  to learn; and they are taught nothing else。 Every part of their
  education tends evidently to some useful purpose; either to
  improve the natural attractions of their person; or to form their
  mind to reserve; to modesty; to chastity; and to economy; to
  render them both likely to become the mistresses of a family; and
  to behave properly when they have become such。 In every part of
  her life a woman feels some conveniency or advantage from every
  part of her education。 It seldom happens that a man; in any part
  of his life; derives any conveniency or advantage from some of
  t