35. Another Vision of Education?
The Duke of Nivernais (1716–1798),xxxviii was a sometime poet and wrote numerous fables. One of them imagines an exchange between a ‘savage’ and a westerner. He evokes a form of physical harm, seen through European eyes, but also inner trauma pointed out in the primitive man’s comments as he displays a form of wisdom his interlocutor does not possess.
Ill-Treated Heads
A savage kneaded,
Slimmed down, shrunk
An infant’s head, to give it the shape
His tribe prized.xxxix
A European passing by
Found this barbarous indeed;
And chiding the American,
Criticised him for insulting
Nature’s wise laws
By spoiling the human face.
The external shape may be damaged;
That I agree, said the Huron.
But we allow full scope to reason,
We do not hamper thought.
On your continent, it is said,
Judgment is narrowed
As the skull is narrowed here.
So which I prithee say to me,
Should truly be condemned?
Louis-Jules Barbon Mancini-Mazarini-Nivernois, Duke of Nivernais, Fables (1796).
Read the free text in the original language (1796 edition): https://archive.org/details/fablesdemancinin02nive
xxxviii https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ardell_(d'après_Ramsay)_-_Louis_Jules_Barbon_Mazarini_Mancini.jpg
xxxix See the accounts of all the travellers to America [author’s note].