文档介绍：THE EDUCATION
OF HENRY ADAMS
by Henry Adams
作者简介
亚当斯亨利( ),历史学家,生
于马萨诸塞州波士顿,查尔斯·亚当斯之子。就读于哈佛大学,曾
任父亲的秘书,后当记者,而后在哈佛大学教历史(
)。他著有几部重要的历史著作,其中包括不朽的《杰斐逊和
麦迪逊两届政府任期的美国历史》(
)(卷, )和优秀的自传《亨利·亚当斯教
育》( 年获普利策
奖)。
The Education of Henry Adams 1
PREFACE
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU began his famous Confessions by a ve-
hement appeal to the Deity: “I have shown myself as I was; contemptible
and vile when I was so; good, generous, sublime when I was so; I have
unveiled my interior such as Thou thyself hast seen it, Eternal Father! Col-
lect about me the innumerable swarm of my fellows; let them hear my
confessions; let them groan at my unworthiness; let them blush at my
meannesses! Let each of them discover his heart in his turn at the foot of
thy throne with the same sincerity; and then let any one of them tell thee if
he dares: ‘I was a better man!’“
Jean Jacques was a very great educator in the manner of the eighteenth
century, and has monly thought to have had more influence than
any other teacher of his time; but his peculiar method of improving human
nature has not been universally admired. Most educators of the eenth
century have declined to show themselves before their scholars as objects
more vile or contemptible than necessary, and even the humblest teacher
hides, if possible, the faults with which nature has generously embellished
us all, as it did Jean Jacques, thinking, as most religious minds are apt to
do, that the Eternal Father himself may not feel unmixed pleasure at our
thrusting under his eyes chiefly the least agreeable details of his creation.
As an unfortunate result the twentieth century finds few recent guides to
avoid, or to follow. American literature offers scarcely one working model
for high education. The student must go back, beyond Jean Jacques, to
Benjamin Franklin, to find a model even of self-teaching. Except in the
abandoned sphere of the dead languages, no one has discussed what part
of education has,