Emile | Page 3

made by halves. Under
existing conditions a man left to himself from birth would be more of a monster than the
rest. Prejudice, authority, necessity, example, all the social conditions into which we are
plunged, would stifle nature in him and put nothing in her place. She would be like a
sapling chance sown in the midst of the highway, bent hither and thither and soon
crushed by the passers-by.
Tender, anxious mother, [Footnote: The earliest education is most important and it
undoubtedly is woman's work. If the author of nature had meant to assign it to men he
would have given them milk to feed the child. Address your treatises on education to the
women, for not only are they able to watch over it more closely than men, not only is
their influence always predominant in education, its success concerns them more nearly,
for most widows are at the mercy of their children, who show them very plainly whether
their education was good or bad. The laws, always more concerned about property than
about people, since their object is not virtue but peace, the laws give too little authority to
the mother. Yet her position is more certain than that of the father, her duties are more
trying; the right ordering of the family depends more upon her, and she is usually fonder
of her children. There are occasions when a son may be excused for lack of respect for
his father, but if a child could be so unnatural as to fail in respect for the mother who bore
him and nursed him at her breast, who for so many years devoted herself to his care, such
a monstrous wretch should be smothered at once as unworthy to live. You say mothers
spoil their children, and no doubt that is wrong, but it is worse to deprave them as you do.
The mother wants her child to be happy now. She is right, and if her method is wrong,
she must be taught a better. Ambition, avarice, tyranny, the mistaken foresight of fathers,
their neglect, their harshness, are a hundredfold more harmful to the child than the blind
affection of the mother. Moreover, I must explain what I mean by a mother and that
explanation follows.] I appeal to you. You can remove this young tree from the highway
and shield it from the crushing force of social conventions. Tend and water it ere it dies.
One day its fruit will reward your care. From the outset raise a wall round your child's
soul; another may sketch the plan, you alone should carry it into execution.
Plants are fashioned by cultivation, man by education. If a man were born tall and strong,
his size and strength would be of no good to him till he had learnt to use them; they
would even harm him by preventing others from coming to his aid; [Footnote: Like them
in externals, but without speech and without the ideas which are expressed by speech, he

would be unable to make his wants known, while there would be nothing in his
appearance to suggest that he needed their help.] left to himself he would die of want
before he knew his needs. We lament the helplessness of infancy; we fail to perceive that
the race would have perished had not man begun by being a child.
We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All
that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of
education.
This education comes to us from nature, from men, or from things. The inner growth of
our organs and faculties is the education of nature, the use we learn to make of this
growth is the education of men, what we gain by our experience of our surroundings is
the education of things.
Thus we are each taught by three masters. If their teaching conflicts, the scholar is
ill-educated and will never be at peace with himself; if their teaching agrees, he goes
straight to his goal, he lives at peace with himself, he is well-educated.
Now of these three factors in education nature is wholly beyond our control, things are
only partly in our power; the education of men is the only one controlled by us; and even
here our power is largely illusory, for who can hope to direct every word and deed of all
with whom the child has to do.
Viewed as an art, the success of education is almost impossible, since the essential
conditions of success are beyond our control. Our efforts may bring us within sight of the
goal, but fortune must favour us if we are to reach it.
What is this goal? As