Observations upon Liberal Education. George Turnbull
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in children but not allow it to degenerate into willfulness and vice. Such a liberty constituted a real “power,” a command over the self and a power to do good in the world. This self-command in turn led one to true happiness and, according to Turnbull, moral “perfection.”
There has been some dispute over Turnbull’s originality and influence as a moral philosopher. As an educational theorist, however, his influence was more direct. References to the Observations and A Treatise on Ancient Painting in eighteenth-century schoolmasters’ educational treatises suggest that Turnbull’s advice was read, admired, and followed by enlightened teachers.10 Perhaps the most important use of Turnbull was in America. When writing his Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania, Benjamin Franklin drew explicitly on George Lf0478_11 Franklin, of course, was one of the early advocates of a liberal, moral, and English curriculum in American schools. He was also a great believer in attempting to reach “moral perfection.” Turnbull’s Observations upon Liberal Education, therefore, was an important contribution to the theory and practice of education during the Age of Enlightenment, a period when the best minds in Europe turned their attention to making young people “happy in themselves and useful to others.” The Observations should prove worthwhile reading to scholars of moral philosophy, liberal education, and the eighteenth century. In addition, as our own age struggles to reform schools and to form free and responsible citizens, concerned teachers and parents may wish to return to their enlightened moorings by contemplating and indeed emulating Turnbull’s ambitious curriculum in virtue and learning.
Terrence O. Moore, Jr.
Editorial Note
George Turnbull left no stone unturned in supporting his observations on education with the best of classical and modern sources. He assumed a readership that was well versed in the literature of antiquity, ancient and modern history, and contemporary works on moral philosophy and education. Like many an eighteenth-century author, he did not always identify these sources precisely. Moreover, he was prone to make general references along the lines of “see Plato on this.” A modern editor could potentially offer a thousand footnotes to this edition and still not consider his or her job complete.
My principle of editing has been less ambitious and, perhaps, less obtrusive. I have simply tried to make Turnbull more readable for a modern audience. To this end, I have followed three basic guidelines. First, I have attempted to identify all of the direct quotations in the body of the text. Many of these passages are taken from authors such as Locke, Rollin, and Quintilian. Turnbull was often unreliable in setting off quoted passages with both opening and closing quotation marks. To assist the reader I have supplied the missing punctuation, using intelligent guesswork in a few instances. Second, I have provided translations for all of the Latin and Greek passages, whether in the text or in the notes. Where possible, I have used the Loeb Classical Library published by Harvard University Press. All such identifications and translations added by me are enclosed in square brackets. Third, I have studiously avoided piling up my own footnotes on top of Turnbull’s. The general quality of some of these notes is an important aspect of Turnbull’s style. Furthermore, he seems to invite readers to take on whole texts, especially those of ancient philosophers, rather than to consult them on specific points of interest. A thorough acquaintance with Turnbull will, no doubt, enlist many of today’s readers to study the ancients on the all-consuming topic of education.
Like so many other students and scholars of the Scottish Enlightenment, I owe a considerable debt to the teaching and conversation of Nicholas Phillipson. If the chief purpose of the historian is to make a period of the past come alive for modern students, then Dr. Phillipson has fulfilled that office with conspicuous wit and learning for many decades. Professor Knud Haakonssen has been an exceedingly patient and helpful general editor. I am deeply grateful to my friend Professor Erik Gunderson of The Ohio State University, who has identified and translated a number of obscure classical passages at a moment’s notice. Finally, I am most thankful to my wife, Jennifer, who has endured my working on Turnbull over weekends and holidays in our first year of marriage while during the regular workweek I was setting up a classical school that is not unworthy, I hope, of Turnbull’s ideal.
OBSERVATIONS
UPON
LIBERAL EDUCATION
OBSERVATIONS UPON Liberal Education, In all its Branches
CONTAINING
The Substance of what hath been said upon that important Subject by the best Writers Ancient or Modern; with many new Remarks interspersed:
Designed for the Assistance of Young Gentlemen, who having made some Progress in Useful Sciences, are desirous of making further Improvements, by a proper Prosecution of their Studies; as well as for the Use of Parents, who would give right Education to their Children, and of those who are engaged in the Business of Education, whether in a more Private or public Manner.
IN THREE PARTS.
By George Turnbull, LL. D.
Chaplain to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Gratum est, quod patriae civem, populoque dedisti, Si facis, ut patriae sit idoneus, utilis agris, Utilis & bellorum & pacis rebus agendis. Plurimum enim intererit, quibus artibus, & quibus hunc tu, Moribus instituas.——JUVENAL Sat. 14. 1
LONDON:
Printed for A. Millar, at Buchanan’s Head, over-against
St. Clement’s Church in the Strand.
MDCCXLII.
TO THE
Right Reverend Father in GOD,
THOMAS,
Lord Bishop of Derry,
MY LORD,
Proper care about education being a concern of the highest importance, with relation both to private and public happiness; to the flourishing of liberty, learning, virtue, religion, of every thing, in one word, that is good or great in human life: And the thoughts which I have here laid together upon this subject, in the best order I was able, not being advent’rous conjectures, hazarded into the world upon no better authority than a presumptuous confidence of my own opinion, but observations transmitted to us from the more thinking and wiser part of mankind in almost all ages and nations of the world, as Truths or Facts confirmed in their experience: Permit me, my Lord, most humbly to dedicate these discourses to your Lordship, who are so universally acknowledged to have all the interests of mankind most sincerely at heart, and to be very distinguishedly qualified to serve them, by that happy concurrence of knowledge of the world, good-breeding, and polite taste, with extensive, solid erudition, true goodness, and genuine piety, which makes the perfect character, that education ought to have in view, and should be adapted to form.
The main drift, my Lord, of these discourses, being to turn education from words to things; to recommend the moral culture of young minds that is requisite to prepare them for philosophical or religious lessons; to delineate the true philosophy which ought to be the principal subject and scope of their instruction; and to shew what advances may early be made in real knowledge, without neglecting useful languages or exercises, if proper methods of insinuating the love of it into youth, and of initiating them into the pursuit be taken: Even the philosophy which gives just ideas of providence, and the administration of the world, by pointing out the wise and good final causes every where pursued in it, and the many beneficial arts to which the knowledge of nature’s general laws leads; and from thence