on Education in His Political Economy

TOMOYUKI ARAI Chuo University [email protected] 1. Introduction

Dugald Stewart lectured in political economy at University from 1800 to 1810, not only on theoretical economics and its abstract principles but also on the application of political economy to real-world problems. Stewart’s desire to provide education in political economy arose from a genuine interest in the improvement of the British education system. In his view, education was an important field, as shown in Outlines of Moral Philosophy (1793), which summarized his lectures on moral philosophy given at Edinburgh since 1785. There was titled ‘Of the Education of the Lower Orders; and of the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes’ under the heading of ‘political economy’ (Works Ⅷ, 5). This shows that Stewart had intended to lecture on political economy even before he began his series of lectures devoted to it in 1800. Additional evidence in this regard is provided by Stewart’s ‘Plan of Lectures on Political Economy, For Winter 1800–1801’, composed of six sections―‘Population’, ‘National Wealth’, ‘The Poor’, ‘Collective Police’, ‘Preventive Police’, and ‘Education’. Although these topics were reduced to four (‘Population’, ‘Wealth’, ‘Poor Relief’, and ‘Education’) in Stewart’s Lectures on Political Economy, education remained an important topic in his mind at the outset of his lectures on political economy in 1800. Stewart’s lectures on education at Edinburgh University in that period influenced many students, especially the so-called Edinburgh Reviewers (Henry Broughm, Francis Jeffrey, Francis Horner, and Sidney Smith). In this paper, I look mainly at Book 4 of Lectures on Political Economy, ‘Of the Education of the Lower Orders’, in order to bring to light the important fact that Stewart proposed various education and education policy reforms and to look at the details of these proposals. Then, on the basis of this discussion, I will try to describe the character and structure of Stewart’s educational thought overall, and to

1 elaborate the general argument that the approach to political economy education pioneered by Stewart had certain important benefits in early-nineteenth-century Scotland, after the death of Adam Smith.

2. Education for the Lower Class (1)

In the initial part of Book 4 of Lectures on Political Economy, ‘Of the Education of the Lower Orders’, is the following passage: “Mr. Smith thinks that if, in our parish schools, instead of the little smattering of Latin which is sometimes taught there, and which is scarce ever of any use to the people, they were instructed in the elementary parts of geometry and mechanics, the literary education of the lower classes would, perhaps, be as complete as it well could” (Works Ⅸ, 327-328). Stewart basically agreed with Smith on this point; further, however, according to Stewart, even if the lower orders were to learn geometry and mechanics, it might contribute to their material security but would not help build up their human character or promote the security of the state. Stewart was more concerned with what he saw as moral corruption and immorality among the lower orders than among the upper class, because in his opinion an uncultivated, uneducated lower class would be more prone to agitation and revolt against the government, leading to the collapse of social order (Works Ⅷ, 54).

“…I shall confine my attention to the only view of the subject which is immediately connected with the plan of he foregoing lectures; ――the importance of extending the means of an elementary education, not with a view to the discovery or embellishment of natural genius, but as the best security for the morals and good order of the community” (Works Ⅸ, 341).

Stewart compares the education of the lower orders in Scotland with that in England. “…［A］lthough England had obtained the benefits of a regular government at a much earlier period than Scotland, the progress of national improvement was, by no means, so rapid there, or universal. This is particularly striking when we attend to the comparative attainments of the lower orders in the two countries; and it demonstrates, that in the present state of society, the diffusion of knowledge, even when assisted by the art of printing, will not be sufficient to secure the instruction

2 of the lower orders, unless proper arrangements for that purpose are made by the part of Government” (Works Ⅸ, 332). That is, according to Stewart, although England was strikingly more economically developed compared to Scotland, the Scottish approach to the education of the lower orders was superior1. This shows that Stewart was not critical of all aspects of the existing Scottish parochial school system, but he certainly did not see it as perfect, and he stated clearly that the government needed to develop more appropriate institutions for education in the future. In short, Stewart asserted the need for education reform in Britain in his era. He gave considerable attention to the education systems in foreign countries in Europe as well as in the United States, on the basis of various pamphlets and papers. For example, he explains the structure of parochial school in Denmark on the basis of William Coxe’s Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark (1792). According to Coxe, in Denmark different schools for “boys” and “females” of the lower classes existed, where they learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. “[T]he children, who are unable to bear the expense of a proper education” could attend these schools and pay low tuition fees equivalent to only £6 a year, and the boarders £20. They learned history, geography, arithmetic, religion, and the German, French, and English languages (Works IX, 335-336. Cf. Coxe [1792] 2005. 186-188). Thus, in Denmark, education for women and affordable tuition were already a reality. The advanced Danish education system as described by Coxe had great impact on Stewart’s view of education. He remarks as follows on this topic in the introduction of Lectures on Political Economy (a text which was originally intended instead to be presented in the part third of his planned Dissertation: Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy, a work which was ultimately not published until 1855, by William Hamilton in The Collected Works of Dugald Stewart).

“This view of education, indeed, (considered in its connexion with intellectual improvement and the advancement of human knowledge,) properly belongs to the Philosophy of the Human Mind; which will be found to be very intimately connected with the most important objects of Political Economy.

1 Concerning the difference of authority and reputation in university between Scotland and England, see Withrington(1999, 9-17)，Rothblatt (2003, 226-236).

3 In this respect, as well as in many others, the education of females (to whose care the task of early instruction must be, in a great measure, intrusted) will be found not undeserving of attention” (Works Ⅷ, 55).

Stewart goes on to contrast the status of woman in the modern age, asserting that it was much higher than in ancient times (Works Ⅷ, 55-56), when, according to Stewart, they had been wholly overlooked as part of the social system (Works Ⅷ, 55). The reason why education for women had not ever been considered, according to Stewart, is that “systematical writers” had overlooked the natural endowments of the sexes and confounded the provinces and the duties of both sexes together.2 Stewart does not remark in detail on the subject of education for women in every part of the Lectures. But his basic assertion of the need of education for women still deserves attention in his context, since with the notable exception of Mary Wollstonecraft, few or no writers of the era discussed this matter extensively. Besides the case of Denmark, Stewart also considered other education systems in Continental Europe. In particular, in his view, the most remarkable advancement of education, on the basis of “the most enlightened and liberal principles[, had been seen] in some parts of Germany” (Works Ⅸ, 336). For this, Stewart primarily credited Frederick the Great of Prussia, although the matter is not explained in detail in his Lectures3. Stewart also paid close attention to education in America. He shows the school bill called “the hundred” which was proposed by the Committee of the first Virginian Assembly under the New Government of America. According to Stewart, the “hundred” in question was a plan to divide every county in Virginia into small school districts of five or six miles square for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to every child for free, and Latin and higher branches of arithmetic to small numbers of scholars. Stewart called this “a very beautiful idea,” because all children had the opportunity of education and because of the progressive

2 “Notwithstanding, however, these circumstances, the education of women has, till very lately, been almost entirely overlooked by systematical writers; and among the few who have treated of it, there has been, in general, a strange disposition to run into extremes. One set of theorist, undervaluing the natural endowments of the other sex, and inattentive to their immense importance in the social system, have adhered even in these times to the confined notions of our forefathers……” (Works Ⅷ, 56). 3 Stewart’s view of education in Germany is something like unclear, as Stewart does not point out Berlin University founded by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1806 in Lectures.

4 scholarship system. This law, as he pointed out, had only been proposed and not passed by the Virginia assembly, but had nevertheless been greatly influential in the other states after the American Revolution. In those days, as state constitutions were being written and ratified, there was a major focus on equality of opportunity for all the people of education in those documents (Tsuburaku 1975, 58-60). Stewart also took special interest in education in France. In 1802, he sent a letter to William Hamilton, who was staying in Paris, saying “I shall long most anxiously for your return, where I shall expect much valuable information; both political and literary” (Stewart 1802). After the French Revolution, a number of normal school for training teachers and science school for training engineers had been established in France. Stewart’s discussion does not clarify whether he knew about these developments, but does indicate his interest in education in France in a general sense. After Stewart showed some cases of education trend in these foreign countries, implicitly contrasting the situation of education in these countries, Stewart then argued for the need for drastic reform of the British education system. “[T]he importance of extending the means of an elementary education [is] not with a view to the discovery or embellishment of natural genius, but as the best security for the morals and good order of the community” (Works Ⅸ, 341), he says. He attended to the concept of school “monitors” devised by the Quaker, Joseph Lancaster. The monitor method was where top students in a class took on the role of teacher in a limited fashion, instructing two or three hundred students in reading and writing in the classroom. This system was seen as beneficial because it took advantage of the special ability of these students and fostered efficient school governance. The use of monitors was also expedient from a cost perspective, because they could teach many poor children, who then would not need to pay high tuition fees. Stewart had been aware of the merits of this system, as he had received a letter from Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson 1803) extolling the benefits of monitors. Moreover, Francis Horner actually observed a monitor-taught class in and sent Stewart a letter of April 6, 1805:

“I take an opportunity of sending you two pamphlets on the education of the lower orders, written by a Quaker practically engaged in that occupation upon a very extensive scale; whose institution has excited a

5 great interest among the people in London, that can be interested by such things. You will from a pretty correct idea of his method from his own account of it in these tracts; I have visited his school, and it exhibits a sufficient and very pleasing proof of its practicability. He seems to have introduced, or at least reduced more to system, one or two important principles, which are very little attended to in the ordinary course of elementary education. His scheme of rewards and of punishment, chiefly by withdrawing or delaying rewards, is both ingenious and very humane, and he has given greater activity to the emulation of children than is commonly done. (A) Nothing can be more pleasing than on going into this school, that you discover nothing of the languor and sickly idleness which make a common parish school so melancholy to see. (B) He has got a library too of almost three hundred volumes, in which there are books from Mrs. Trimmer up to the lives of the Admirals and Cook’s Voyages, and the boys get these to take home with them from week to week. The man owned to me, that his boys always preferred the works of adventure or fun, to scientific dialogues4” (C) (Works Ⅸ, 341-342).

4 (A), (B), and (C) here indicate omissions from the original letter, as follows.

(A) “But the greatest novelty is the principle, upon which he has founded his new methods of teaching arithmetic and spelling; you will extract it from the explanation he has attempted. The advantage of these methods consists in keeping the little fellows all work at once, and their attention engaged all the time they are confined in school. This is effected in a very simple manner; and besides the oeconomy of time and expense, must contribute very much to the immediate happiness of the children”.

(B) “I saw here the other day more than six hundred boys, of the poorest people in the suburbs, taught for nothing, all in rags but cheerfully engaged; and writing, spelling, and cyphering as well as they need to do. The system goes on, by the classification of the boys and the selection of the best of them as Monitors, with scarcely any further trouble on the part of the head master, than that of general inspection”.

(C) , “which Mrs Barbauld, etc. have been trying to substitute for them; but I did not get him to agree with me, that boys know better what is good for them than Mrs B., etc. ― / I was at some pains to talk to Lancaster about himself. He was originally bred to be a Dissenting minister, but at the age of sixteen was converted by the Friends. He has no powers of understanding, but yet a practical way of turning his own subject in his thoughts; and he is keenly devoted to it by something which he honestly believes to be all philanthropy, but which is one or two tenth parts at least a very excellent ambition of notoriety. He is not so fanatical, as the circumstance of his conversion might lead one to suspect; for he thinks with great liberty and justness, on the religious instruction of the lower orders. Yet I had an amusing specimen of his notions of inward light, on asking him rather too formal a question, about the steps by which his mind had been led to his views of improving Education. He

6

As can be seen in the latter half of this letter, Horner felt the monitor system was valuable—as did Stewart. Nevertheless, Stewart felt that the system was less than ideal in terms of fostering intellectual improvement in students. After explaining the monitor system in the Lectures, he remarks as follows: “[A] most important desideratum for completing the business of popular instruction yet remains in the multiplication and the circulation of books…” (Works Ⅸ, 342). That is to say, Stewart saw that the monitor method was not adequate as a way of educating large numbers of children given the diffusion of books and printed materials in early-nineteenth-century Britain.

3. Education for the Lower Class (2)

Stewart emphasizes the advantages of “effects to be expected from a general diffusion of information on the progress of science” (Works Ⅸ, 339). He sees as an important part of this argument a phenomenon pointed out by Smith in The Wealth of Nations: as paraphrased by Stewart, “in what manner the division of labour in the mechanical arts increases the productive powers of human industry” (Works Ⅸ, 339). Stewart remarks as follows. “What Mr. Smith has well remarked concerning the astonishing multiplicity of arts, which contribute their share in furnishing a peasant with his coarse woolen coat, will be found applicable, in a far greater degree, to the means which contribute to the improvement of his comparatively uncultivated understanding” (Works Ⅸ, 340). Stewart sees that science has developed remarkably since Smith’s day, and expects the people to improve intellectually at a much faster rate than before in proportion to the progress of science and diffusion of knowledge. “[T]hat the rapidity of the hand in executing a mechanical operation, may be increased by practice to a very great degree, is an acknowledged fact. But there is obviously a limit, beyond which this rapidity cannot possibly be carried” (Works Ⅸ , 340), he says. In connection with this Stewart is interested in the possibility of replacing “manual work” by “means of machinery” (Works Ⅸ, 315). He remarks that “even if [‘this could trace no seek steps, but talked of Providence, and quoted the Proverbs, and spoke of himself as an instrument in the hands of God for effecting a great improvement in the condition of the poor. He has groped out his system he can’t recollect how, and finds himself governing a thousand children very much to his own amazement” (Horner 1805).

7 reasoning of Mr. Smith’] were perfectly just, it would not be at all applicable to the present question” (Works Ⅸ, 317), and that “indeed, I know of few manufactures where great manual dexterity is less required, than in that of pin-making” (Works Ⅸ, 315). He insists that the division of labor has a powerful promoting effect on the invention of machines (Works Ⅸ, 318). In Stewart’s view, the diffusion of early education and the progress of science in Britain since the late eighteenth century had led to a great improvement of the “capacity” and enlightenment of the “spirit” of all the nations5 (Works Ⅸ, 345). Therefore, Stewart sees that workers in the machine age will not necessarily continue to be content to do simple repetitive tasks as posited by Smith in his formulation of the idea of the division of labor in The Wealth of Nations. Stewart did not see this intellectual improvement among the working classes proceeding by the diffusion of elementary education and the progress of science alone. In addition, he emphasized the correction of fallacious information and prejudices by the diffusion of “occasional pamphlets” and “periodical journals.” He remarks as follows.

“I mean the wide circulation of occasional pamphlets, and of periodical journals,――those cheap and enticing vehicles of information, which adapt themselves to the rapid, and often capricious changes of general curiosity, and communicate, even to the indolent and dissipated, some imperfect knowledge of the course of political events, and of the progress of scientific improvement. The advantages which some of these fugitive compilations derive from their familiar style and regular publication, are abundantly obvious” (Works Ⅸ, 343).

For Stewart, it is the absence of thinking that provokes the people to “political events” like agitation, insurrection, and fanaticism. According to him, the “innocence” of the people in general causes not only violence, but also the decline of their “morals and industry.”

5 “Still, however, the question recurs, are the morals of men improved, and their enjoyments increased in proportion as the cultivation of taste and learning advances? Various doubts have been suggested on this subject, particularly of late years. But I confess, for my own part, I am disposed, without the smallest hesitation, to answer the question in the affirmative” (Works Ⅸ, 345).

8

“Hence the indolence and languor of the savage, when his bodily powers are unemployed, and hence that vacuity of thought which prompts him to rush into the agitations of gaming, or the delirium of intoxication. ／ All this will apply, more or less, to uncultivated minds in every state of society, and can be prevented only by those early habits of mental application, which render some degree of intellectual exertion a sort of want or necessary of life. Nor is it merely in this view that early instruction operates beneficially. Whenever the lower orders enjoy the benefits of education, they will be found to be comparatively sober and industrious ; and in many instances, the establishment of a small library in the neighbourhood of a manufactory, has been known to produce a sensible and rapid improvement in the morals of work people. The cultivation of mind, too, which books communicate, naturally inspires that desire and hope of advancement, which, in all the classes of society, is the most steady and powerful motive to economy and industry. The book societies which have arisen in different parts of Scotland, England, and America, abundantly illustrate and confirm the truth of this observation” (Works Ⅸ, 345-347).

For Stewart, it is necessary to begin educating children early in order to foster industry in them. And, as remarked above, he sees that “occasional pamphlets” and “periodical journals” are becoming widespread all over Britain by the multiplication of highways and the establishment of regular posts and couriers (Works Ⅸ, 344). He thinks that this remarkable development of communications is leading people to be able to acquire correct information more easily, and under these swiftly changing circumstances he insists that the need to reform education is ever more pressing.

“It is only now that the advantage of historical information are become subjects of some circumstance on the literary taste of the age has been very remarkable, tending everywhere, more or less, to turn the attention of speculative men from the idle subtleties of the schools, and the comparatively uninteresting pursuits of physical knowledge, to those studies which aim at the improvement and the happiness of society. / The conclusions to which these studies have already led, are, many of

9 them, of the highest importance, and probably many more remain in store to reward the industry of our successors” (Works Ⅸ, 398).

Although Stewart doesn’t clarify here exactly what he sees as the concrete alternative to the scholastic and irrelevant legacy subjects like Latin, elsewhere in the Lectures he proposes a curriculum for the lower orders consisting of “morality,” “physics,” “mechanics,” and “natural history” (Works Ⅸ , 341). As seen here, Stewart recommended not only practical education but also cultural education. He does not introduce specific education policies or ideas for improvement of school education. However, there is one specific point in which he puts great stock—the effect of reading and literary education—and we will discuss it in the next section.

4. Effects of Reading

In early-nineteenth-century Britain, the number of libraries had greatly increased in comparison with Adam Smith’s era, keeping pace with the growing number of publications. Non-profit proprietary libraries collecting thousands of books had been established in Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham (Altick 1998, 60-62). On these developments, Stewart says there is an “advantage which all classes of men derive from a taste for books, considered merely as a resource, and without any regard to their practical effects on the concerns of their practical effects on the concerns of their life, or on their speculative views” (Works Ⅸ, 346). He argues, that is, that libraries are important to factory laborers for the same reason they are important to children.6

“In almost every species of employment, a considerable part of every day must be devoted to bodily relaxation and repose; and unless some exercise or amusement be provided for the mind during these intervals of occupation, they will necessarily be filled up with intemperance and profligacy. …… in many instances, the establishment of a small library in the neighbourhood of a manufactory, has been known to produce a sensible and rapid improvement in

6 “With respect to the higher orders of men, I presume this scarcely admits of a doubt. And yet it holds with still greater force, if possible, in the case of those who subsist by the labour of their hands” (Works Ⅸ, 346).

10 the morals of the work people” (Works Ⅸ, 346).

In Book 3 of the Lectures, ‘Of the Poor――their maintenance’ (Works Ⅸ, 314-319), Stewart had endorsed the working-class practice of drinking a little alcohol to relieve oneself at the end of a hard workday. Here, he sees reading books as a “resource,” potentially with a similar function in workers’ lives as a drink. To foster the adoption of this practice, Stewart asserted, working hours would need to be produced and “some exercise or amusement” would need to be available in order to restore workers and soothe the fatigue caused by hard manual labor. He recognized that many laborers had no energy to spare for reading, and discussed this and other evils emerging from the division of labor and the factory system in the Lectures (Works Ⅷ, 183-188). The biggest reason Stewart was interested in the education of factory laborers is that he had been impressed by David Dale’s factory school in New Lanark. Stewart was recorded in the visitor’s book of this school multiple times from 1796 to 1798 (Hamilton 1983, 19). He greatly admired Dale’s factory for supplying the laborers with a daily regular meal and health control. At the factory, the workday was eleven-and-a-half hours, from six a.m. to seven p.m. with a half-hour break for breakfast at nine a.m. and one hour for lunch at two p.m. This constituted shorter working hours and longer breaks than other factories in Britain at the time. In addition, Stewart emphasized the innovativeness of the factory school, which conducted basic education for both boys and girls, including education for the improvement of their morals (Works Ⅷ, 186). By 1796, the number of teachers had risen to sixteen and the number of pupils to 507. Each class was graded into eight classes, based on the ability of the children (McLaren 1999, 62-64). The curriculum covered not only reading, writing, and arithmetic but also church music, sewing, and hygiene. The school was innovative in terms of numbers, streaming of students by ability, and skills-oriented education. Stewart’s belief in the importance of education for tackling labor problems is one he shares with Smith, who discusses in Wealth of Nations the evils of the division of labor and the city problem. To address these issues, he asserted the need of little religious sects and more study of science and philosophy. However, Smith did not mention shortened work hours, which Stewart saw as a good because they provided time for education in practical matters like sewing and for reading. Part of

11 the reason for this divergence is likely the sharp increase in printing presses and reading material in Britain by the time of Stewart’s lectures on political economy as opposed to in Smith’s day. This is also evident in other aspects of their treatment of labor issues; for instance, Stewart discussed the problems of child labor and factory labor more seriously and repeatedly in his Lectures than Smith did in Wealth of Nations. Stewart was deeply aware of the deleterious effects of economic and workplace change on factory workers and working children, and saw in education and reading a means of preventing profligacy and crime but also of inspiring the desire to improve one’s lot in life, a powerful motive to economy and industry (Works Ⅸ, 346-347).7 Therefore, for Stewart, the labor problem was one to be solved by the reduction of working hours, the protection of some time for repose, and the improvement of the intellectual life of the lower classes through education.

5. Literary Education

Dugald Stewart had been familiar with the poetical works of Pope and Milton since his early life, and had a great taste for poetry as he was of painting and music. He became personal friends with Robert Burns through their mutual involvement in Freemasonry, and they often met (Macintyre 2003, 54-64); their correspondence shows a reciprocal respect. Stewart was deeply affected by Burns’s work, and Burns was a very important figure in his life. This particular interest in poetry can be placed alongside or within the context of Stewart’s general interest in literature as a means of human improvement. As mentioned above, Stewart was impressed by Horner’s letter discussing classroom monitors; in the same letter, which was omitted partly in Stewart’s Lectures, Horner asserted that adults should not tell children what books to read8 (Horner 1805), since forcing them to read books that are uninteresting or difficult to them will lessen their enthusiasm and prevent them from acquiring the reading habit. Instead, says Horner, boys who often go to the library already know what books they want to read and can be trusted to take charge of their own reading. Horner’s thought on spontaneous reading influenced Stewart, who stressed the importance of

7 “The cultivation of mind, too, which books communicate, naturally inspires that desire and hope of advancement, which, in all the classes of society, is the most steady and powerful motive to economy and industry” (Works Ⅸ, 346-347). 8 See (B) of footnote 2 in this paper.

12 reading for cultivating “the imagination” by stimulating children’s “curiosity,” which he considers a significant purpose of education. (Works Ⅴ, 387-389. Cf. Works Ⅱ, 217-218). In this way, Stewart saw poetry and prose literature as the foundation of a good education. According to him, a literary education leads to great moral and intellectual improvement and the cultivation of the sentiments and the imagination. He regards the literary as encompassing music as well as poetry and prose fiction, and thus a literary education is also a musical one9. The reason Stewart stressed the need for literary education is that he recognized that the literary had become gradually much more fascinating in civilized society. On the other hand, however, during the same period, the “Moderate Literati” of Edinburgh, such as Hugh Blair, Adam Ferguson, and Alexander Carlyle, had gradually lost their influence as literary commentators due to the death of William Robertson changing tastes in reading, and so on from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century (Sher 1985, 314-323). “The influence of this circumstance on the literary taste of this age has been very remarkable, tending everywhere, more or less, to turn the attention of speculative men from the idle subtleties of the schools, and the comparatively uninteresting pursuits of physical knowledge, to those studies which aim at the improvement and the happiness of society” (Works Ⅸ, 398). Stewart remarks that exposure to various kinds of literature cultivates young children’s “infinitely diversified capacities of mind.” (Works Ⅸ, 339. Cf. Works Ⅱ, 13). This indicates a view of education similar to Smith’s, and indeed, the latter, too, states a few times in Theory of Moral Sentiments that poems and music have a good effect on people’s sentiments (Smith [1759] 1976, 123, 195). In Smith’s Essays on Philosophical Subjects, it is also remarked “Poetry and Eloquence, it has accordingly been often observed, produce their effect always by a conncected variety and succession of different thoughts and ideas” (Smith [1795] 1980, 192). Another common aspect between Smith’s and Stewart’s views of education is the need for it to precede entry into the work world. Smith asserts this need in Lectures on Law, where he criticizes the fact that boys of six or seven years were working in the factories of Birmingham during his lectures. “The education which low people’s

9 On the meaning of literary in this era, see Williams (1973, 150-154) and Oxford English Dictionary (1989, vol. Ⅷ, 1029).

13 children receive is not indeed at any rate considerable; however, it does them an immense deal of service, and the want of it is certainly one of their greatest misfortunes” (Smith [1766] 1978, 540). Smith remarks as well that literacy has an immense effect on children’s “thought and speculation,” in Book 5 of Wealth of Nations (Smith [1776] 1976, vol.Ⅱ, 788). However, Smith did not assert the need for literary education in all his books on education. Although he discusses education extensively in Lectures of Law and Wealth of Nations, it is basically focused on the attainment of reading and writing, that is, on literacy (Cf. Smith [1766] 1978, 540, Smith [1776] 1976, vol.Ⅱ, 405). As the literacy rate in England in 1750 was just about 50%10, it seems to make sense that Smith would have been more concerned than Stewart about basic literacy. By Stewart’s time, diffusion of elementary education and the increase in the use of monitors had made basic literacy a less dire concern. As remarked above, however, Stewart remained greatly concerned about the need for literary education, for example before entering the work world.

6. Education for Philosophy of Human Mind

Finally, I will slightly show Stewart’s view of education in his philosophy of human mind. For Stewart, education is interrelated with his philosophy of human mind. He remarks on this point as follows. “The most essential objects of education are the two following: First, to cultivate all the various principles of our nature, both speculative and active, in such a manner as to bring them to the greatest perfection of which they are susceptible; and, secondly, by watching over the impressions and associations which the mind receives in early life, to secure it against the influence of prevailing errors, and, as far as possible, to engage its prepossessions on the side of truth” (Works Ⅱ, 59). In short, what this implies is that the cultivation of human nature and mind to prevent errors and prejudice was significant for Stewart’s philosophy. This aspect of his thought was based on Baconian ideas emphasizing the need to correct their prejudices and erroneous thinking. In particular, as seen above, the mental development of children in their early years was a primary task for Stewart, because human mentality and human nature are easily agitated and influenced even in very young children who have not yet

10 For more discussion on the literacy rate in this era, see Taguchi (2004, 36-40).

14 grown or changed much from their initial state.

“From what has now been said, it appears how much the progress of human reason, which necessarily accompanies the progress of human reason, which necessarily accompanies the progress of society, is owing to the introduction of general terms, and to the use of general propositions. In consequence of the gradual improvements which take place in language as an instrument of thought, the classifications both of things and facts with which the infant faculties of each successive race are conversant, are more just and more comprehensive than those of their predecessors; the discoveries which, in one age, were confined to the studious and enlightened few, becoming in the next the established creed of the learned; and in the third, forming part of the elementary principles of education” (Works Ⅱ, 210).

This passage remarks upon the development of human reason due to early education. In Stewart’s view, early education in general terms to children who had not acquired the reason and judgment is necessary to cultivate their minds (Rashid 1985, Arai 2009). He argued that errors of reasoning were due to inaccurate use of words, and stressed the need for reasoning based on accurate terms and clear use of language in order to ascertain simple, general laws, based on Francis Bacon’s philosophy. “…[T]he most important is that ambiguity in the signification of words, which renders it so difficult to avoid employing the same expression in different senses, in the course of the same process of reasoning. This source of mistake, indeed, is apt in a much greater degree to affect our conclusions in metaphysics, morals, and politics, than in the different branches of philosophy…” (Works Ⅱ, 179). Stewart thus sees ambiguous words as greatly related to moral and political philosophy, not only natural philosophy. Inaccurate or ambiguous words spoken by children have to be corrected through early education to improve their minds, in the service of Stewart’s larger conception of political economy. It is remarked as follows in the Introduction to Stewart’s Lectures:

“The revolution which has taken place in science and philosophy since the time of Lord Bacon, seems obviously to recommend (in a greater degree than has hitherto been effected in most universities) a correspondent change in the plan of academical instruction. This view of education, indeed, (considered in its connexion with intellectual improvement and the advancement of human knowledge,)

15 properly belongs to the Philosophy of the Human Mind; but there are also many views of the same subject, which will be found to be very intimately connected with the most important objects of Political Economy. In this respect, as well as in many others, the education of females (to whose care the task of early instruction must be, in a great measure, intrusted) will be found not undeserving of attention” (Works Ⅷ, 55).

As education from the perspective of Stewart’s philosophy of human mind was “the most important objects of Political Economy,” thus political economy was closely related to the philosophy of human mind. It deserves attention in his remarks above that the education of women using an approach rooted in philosophy of human mind is identified as significant. However, he hardly discusses policy for the education of women in his Lectures, although he took education for women in Denmark in it. This is apparent when we compare the assertion by Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Women ([1792] 1995, 260-275) of the signification of schooling for both sexes and the need for practical education in areas such as sewing . Stewart’s remarks on the need of education for women were of great worth, as this matter had not been discussed in detail by previous authors of the age. Stewart was of the view that education for women had to prevail all over Britain in early times.

7. Concluding Remarks

Dugald Stewart stressed the effect of the diffusion of printed books and libraries on the common people in the growing commercial society and advancing civilization of early-nineteenth-century Britain, asserting the need for basic education reform informed by similar reforms taking place elsewhere (and to the monitors in London), in order to reflect these societal changes. To Stewart, books were important for reasons rooted in his moral philosophy, which set a high value on the improvement of human mind, and in his philosophy of political economy. However, Stewart reflected not only the progress of his commercial and industrial society but also the severe labor problems it engendered. He was greatly influenced in this regard by David Dale’s factory school in New Lanark. For Stewart the improvement of factory laborers’ and children’s morals and intelligence was very important, more so than for Adam Smith. Smith and Stewart placed in

16 common a high value on intellectual and moral cultivation and on solving labor problems that they saw holding human development back. But Smith did not seem to envision any particular role of literary education or reading in this regard, whereas for Stewart this was a matter of practical education policy: his strong assertion that factory laborers would not be able to attain intellectual improvement without shorter working hours (to make time for reading) separates him definitively from Smith and, it could be said, makes him more advanced. Thus, Stewart’s education theory was rooted in his political economy and played a very important role in it, for reasons closely related to his philosophy of human mind. It is worth noting that Stewart strongly emphasized the importance of education for the people, providing more evidence for the close conceptual relation between political economy and education after Smith.

Reference

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18 Williams, R. 1976. Keywords; A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, London, Croom Helm. Withrington, D. J. 1999. “Ideas and Ideals in University Reform in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain: A Scottish Perspective”, The European Legacy, 4-6. Wollstonecraft, M. [1792] 1995. Vindication of the Rights of Men: with a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and Hints, ed., S. Tomaselli, Cambridge University Press.

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