Augustana College - Rockety I Yearbook (Rock Island, IL)

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initten for the Rorl-rfy-I by DR. C. XV. Foss. E have no records of the earliest schools or of the first students. When history dawns on our race, Schools with teachers and students were already in existence. The earliest extant libraries contain textibooks un various subjects including scientific treatises. grammars, and lexicuns. The first people in develop :1 written language and literature were perhaps the Sumerians. the earliest inhabitants of the Euphrates valley. This literature was almost wholly of :1 religious nature. Their history carries us back tn the fourth or lifth millennium before Christ. An invasion of the Semites followed. The new pcopic adopted the civilization of the old inhabitants and also their system 0f writing, but they Ietained their own language. In the course of centuries the Sumerian became a dead language, but as it contained a rich religious literature of formulas hymns, and prayers, it was studied by the students of that day as Latin and Greek are today Grammars, lexicons. :md interlinenr translations uf texts used by students in those early ages are found in the ancient Assyrian 21nd Babylonian libraries. and may b: used by the students of the same nld languages today. The landing motive of the Babylonian student for study. aside from his love at knowledge, was therefore .1 religious one. His curriculum, it 1: tlllct included. besides the strictly religious subjects, also natural history, mathematics astronomy, and law but the whuIe was given a decidedly religious cast. His instructors were priests. and his studies were pursued in the interest of religion and under its sanction.

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ERICSON IIALLiLADORATORY.

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Along the banks of the Nile conditions were similar. There, mu, etlu-cntion was of a sacerdntal kind. The instruction, however, was of :1 practical sort especmily along the lines at astronomy. mathematics, and mechanics. This may be inferred from the great irrigation and engineering works found in the valley and from the-knowlcrlge and skill that made possible such masterpieces of architecture as the pyramids and the temples and palaces of Karnnk and Luxur. TEXt-buoks on various subjects have. come down to us. and large numbers of exercise books with the master's corrections in the margins have also been found. The most celehrmed seat of learning in ancient Egypt mm at Heliopnlis, :1 few miles north of the modern city of Cairo. For ages the priests of Helinpolis were renowned for their learning. and to them resorted students from variuus lands. Hither came Thales from Miletus, Pluto from Athens, and many others. Here Moses was received as a student and became learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. The Schools of the Prophet; amtmg the Hebrews were almost wholly of :1 religious nature. The later Schools of the Rabbis at Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Babylon were religious and philosophical in their aims and methods. The must celebrated pupil, or student, of this class of schools was beyond all question Saul of Tursus. The Greeks had less of the religious and more of the intellectual element in their makc-up, and, hence. their schools of higher learning were of a more secular character. Amnng the great Greek teachers who gave lectures and gathered students about them Pythagoras is perhaps the earliest. His course of instructiml embraced principally speculative philosophy. astronomy, and mathematics. His strong personality deeply impressed his age, and imagination has veiled his nnemorj.V in a shroud of mystery. Legend avers that during their first years students were not allowed to look upon their master, but listened to his lectures from behind a screen He was held in the highest reverence by his pupils, and an 11m: dixit clinched all their arguments. Socrates was the first Greek to lay stress on the mural element in education. He established no school and had no Fixed place for his instruction. He met his pupils in the streets and market places wherever chance brought them together. His greatest pupil was Plum, who established the Academic School, so named tram the Academy, a public park to the north of Athens, where he gave his lecturest HThe Mind of the School, as Plato called him, was Aristotle, perhaps the greatest thinker the world has ever produced. He established the Peripatetic Schoal, and gave lectures in the Lyceum at the foot of Mt. Lycabettus east of Athens. His course of instruction embraced all extant knowledge, and he gave a systematic form to the VETIUUS SClEnCesy The Roman schools were of a decidedly practical character. Their main obicct was to train young men to law and oratory, and to produce jurists and statesmen. Theeonqucst-of the East, the spread of Judaism along the Mediterranean shores. and espeemlly the Introduction of Christianity made religion once more the dominant element in the schools of higher learning.