Note 99 — Chapter VI · PROTESTANTISM AND PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. LUTHER AND COMENIUS.

This is, perhaps, the earliest appearance of the conception that learning should be a process of discovery or of re-discovery. Condillac (1715-1780) has elaborated this idea in the introduction to his Grammaire, and Spencer (Education, p. 122) makes it a fundamental law of teaching. If this assumed principle were to be rigorously applied, as, fortunately, it cannot be, progress in human knowledge would be impossible. Mr. Bain’s comment on this doctrine (Education as a Science, p. 94) is as follows: “This bold fiction is sometimes put forward as one of the regular arts of the teacher; but I should prefer to consider it as an extraordinary device, admissible only on special occasions.” (P.)