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ESSAYS

ON

PRACTICAL EDUCATION;

BY

MARIA 8s R. L. EDGEWORTH,

A NEW EDITION.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON;

PRINTED FOR R. HUNTER,

SUCCESSOR TO J. JOHNSON, ST. PAULAS CHURCH-YARD;

AND BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

4''

1815,

s^-

^1;

C. BaUlwin, Printer,
New Bridge-street, Lombn.

PREFACE

TO THE

FIRST EDITION.

W E shall not imitate the invidious exam-
ple of some authors, who think it necesssary
to destroy the edifices of others, in order
to clear the way for their own. Indeed,
as we have no peculiar system to support,
we have no temptation to attack the
theories of former writers : and to point
out that we rely entirely upon practice
and experience, we have chosen the title
of Essays on Practical Education.

To make any progress in the art of edu-
ation, it must be patiently reduced to an
experimental science ; we are fi^lly sensible
a 2

iv Preface.

of the extent and difficulty of this un-
dertaking, and we have not the arrogance
to imagine, that we have made any con-
siderable progress in a work, which the
labours of many generations may, perhaps^
be insufficient to complete; but we lay
before the public the result of our experi-
ments, and in many instances the expe-
riments themselves. In pursuing this part
of our plan, we have sometimes descended
from that elevation of style, which the
reader might expect in a quarto volume;
we have frequently been obliged to record
facts concerning children which may seem
trifling, and to enter into a minuteness of
detail which may appear unnecessary.
No anecdotes, however, have been ad-
mitted without due deliberation; nothing
has been introduced to gratify the idle
curiosity of others, or to indulge our own
feelings of domestic partiahty.

In what we have written upon the ru-

Prefctce. v

diments of science, so far from attempting to
teach them in detail, we refer our readers
to treatises on the different branches of
science, and on the various faculties of the
human mind, which are to be found in
every language. The chapters that we have
introduced upon these subjects, are intend-
ed merely as specimens of the manner in
which we think young children should be
taught. We have found, from experience,
that an early knowledge of the first princi-
ples of science may be given in conversation,
and may be insensibly acquired from the
usual incidents of life: if this knowledge
be carefully associated with the technical
terms which common use may preserve in
the memory, much of the difficulty of sub-
sequent instruction may be avoided.

The sketches we have hazarded upon
metaphysical subjects, in the chapters on
Attention, on Memory and Invention, Wit
and Judgment, &c. may to some appear too

vi Preface,

f Jight, and tp others too abstruse and tedious
Tp those who have explored the vast mines
of human know^ledge, small specimens
appear trifling and contemptible; whilst,
pn the contrary, the less accustomed eye is
somewhat dazzled and confused by the
appearance even of a small collection : to
the most enlightened mind, however, new
combinations may be suggested by a new
arrangement of materials ; and the curiosity
afid enthusiasm of the inexperienced may
b^ awakened, and excited to accurate and
laborious researches by a familiar introduc-
tion to the rudiments of science.

,iWith respect to what is commonly called
the education of the heart, we have endea-
voured to suggest the easiest means of
inducing useful and agreeable habits, well
regulated sympathy, and benevolent affec-
tions. A witty writer says, " II est permit
*' d ennuyer en moralites d'ici jusqu a Con-
'* stantinople." Unwilling to avail our-

4

Preface, vl

gelv^s of this permission, we have sedu-
lously avoided declamation, and wherever
we have been obliged to repeat ancient
maxims, and common truths, we have at
least thought it becoming to present them
in a new dress.

On religion and politicks we have httn
silent, because we have no ambition to
gain partizans, or to make proselytes, and
because we do not address ourselves ex-
clusively to any sect or to any party. Our
opinions concerning the female character
and understanding have been fully de-
tailed in a former publication;* and, un-
willing to fatigue by repetition, we have
touched but slightly upon these subjects in
our chapters on Temper, Female Accom-
plishments, Prudence, and Economy.

We have warned our readers not to ex-
pect from us any new theory of education,

* Letters for Literary Ladies.

viii Preface.

but they need not apprehend that we have
written without method, or that we have
thrown before them a heap of desultory
remarks and experiments, which lead to
no conclusions, and which tend to the es-
tablishment of no useful principles. We
assure them that we have worked upon a
regular plan, and where we have failed of
executing our design, it has not been for
want of labour or attention. Convinced
that it is the duty and the interest of all
who write, to inquire what others have said
and thought upon the subject of which
they treat, we have examined attentively
the works of others, that we might collect
whatever knowledge they contain, and that
we might neither arrogate inventions that
do not belong to us, nor weary the public
by repetition. Some useful and ingenious
essays may probably have escaped our no-
tice, but we flatter ourselves, that our read-
ers will not find reason to accuse us of neg-

Preface. ix

ligence, as we have perused with dihgent
attention every work upon education, that
has obtained the sanction of time or of
public approbation; and, though we have
never bound ourselves to the letter, we
hope that we have been faithful to the spi-
rit of their authors. Without incumbering
ourselves with any part of their systems
which has not been authorised by experi-
ence, we have steadily attempted imme-
diately to apply to practice such of their
ideas as we have thought useful : but whilst
we have used the thoughts of others, we
have been anxious to avoid plagiarism,
and wherever we have borrowed, the debt
has been carefully acknowledged.

When a book appears under the name of
two authors, it is natural to enquire what
share belongs to each of them. The work
was resumed from a design formed and
begun twenty years ago, by Mr. Richard
Lovell Edgeworth ; all that relates to the
3

X Preface,

art of teaching to read in the chapter on
Tasks, the chapter on Grammar and Clas-
sical Literature, Geography, Chronology,
Arithmetic, Geometry and Mechanics, were
written by him. The sketch of an Intro-
duction to Chemistry was written by his
son Lovell E. and the rest of the book by
his daughter Maria E, She was encoaraged
and enabled to write upon this important
subject, by having for many years before
her eyes the conduct of a judicious mother
in the education of a large family. The chap-
ter on Obedience was written from the late
Mrs. Edge worth's notes, and was excrt>pli-'
fied by her successful practice in the manage-
ment of her children : the whole manuscript
was submitted to her judgment, and she
revised parts of it in the last stage of a
fatal disease.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

The Authors have in this Second Edition, endeavoured
to avail themselves of various corrections that have been
pointed out to them by private or pubhc animadversion.

In the chapter upon Servants, they have explained what
appeared difficult or liable to objection ; and from some
other chapters they have expunged superfluous passages.

They feel themselves highly obliged to M. Pictet, of
Geneva, for such a translation of their Works into French
as gives back a 'faithful and lively image of the Original,
They attribute to misapprehension some strictures which
M. Pictet has thrown out in his Bihliotheque Britannique^
^0, 93, p. 27 1, with respect to their silence upon Religion,
Children usually learn the Religion of their parents; they
attend public worship, and both at home and at school
they read the Bible and various religious books, which are
of course put into their hands. — Can any thing material be
added to what has already been published upon this sub-
ject ? — Could any particular system meet with general ap-
probation? /

xii Advertisement.

The Authors continue to preserve the silence upon
this subject^ which they before thought prudent ; but they
disavow in explicit terms the design of laying down a
system of Education, founded upon morality exclusive of
Religion.

EdgewortVs Town'f
Jan, 180U

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

THIRD EDITION.

(jtREAT care has been taken to render this Edition
correct : a few passages have been omitted, and a very
few additions have been made. It is du6 to the Public
to declare that twelve years' additional experience [^in a
numerous family, and careful attention to the result of
other modes of education, have given the Authors no rea-
son to retract what they have advanced in these volumes.
In revising the chapter on Arithmetick, the Author
was inclined to expunge a table of Figures, which any
body could construct for their children ; but it remains,
because every body wishes to be saved such dull labour.

The Author, however, strongly recommends the most
minute attention to the first rudiments of arithmetick ; —
if he has succeeded in forming the good sense of any of
his pupils, he attributes it chiefly to having given them
clear notions on whatever he has taught; and not to the
quantity of what has been committed to memory. He
also takes this opportunity of reiterating his earnest advice
to parents, to make literature and science agreeable to

^*v jidvertiseTAent.

their pupils, instead of confijiing them, before they go
to school, to long and tedious tasks.— It is to be hoped,
that even at schools, the hours of attendance may be
shortened, or the subjects of attention varied. A school-
master is expected to give as much as possible for the
poor emolument which he receives; but the quality, as
well as the quantity that is required should be taken into
consideration ; and if it be considered how very little
real knowledge schooUboys acquire in two thousand hourg
between Christmas and Christmas^ parents might fairly-
compound for twice the knowle^e in half the time : the
greatest slaves in a school are not the boys ; the master
and his assistants are more to be conlmrserated*

A more liberal conduct from! parents woiuild aher this
systemi of unnecessary restraint, and im conscqueweCy
boys would not almost necessarily hate school and love
the stable.

It has been slated, that this book is casFcrakted: only
for the Ibaghcr classes of society. That it was^ prin-
dpally intended for those classes i"si not d'enied > but? it
i* hoped that its directioias are not exclusively constructed!.
If the Authors feel themselves eqiaal to the task, they may
aidres* themselves to a larger sphere of th€ community.
Tiueir conduct in this particular has not arisen from any
wmwonthy motives, but from a sense of the great difficul-
toes which occur in adapting proper means to the great ob-
ject of all education ; the producing in every station a

Advertisement.

XT

sound mind, the giving that good sense, which, in mor-
ality, religion, and politicks, guides to what is most rea-,
sonable, and which, in all the affairs of common life,
leads to the establishment of good character and pernA-
nent prosperity.

EdgeicorUC s Totcn,
Jan. 181 1.

I

CONTENTS

VOL. I.

CHAP. Page

I. Toys,..: 1

II. Tasks 47

III. On Attention 94

IV. Servants 151

V. Acquaintance 1 70

VI. OnTemper 195

VII. On Obedience 218

VIII. On Truth 242

IX. On Rewards and Punishments 288

X. On Sympathy and Sensibility 339

XL On Vanity, Pride, and Ambition 383

XII. Books..., 406

PRACTICAL EDUCATION,

CHAPTER I,

Toys.

'^ W HY don't you play with your playthings,
" my dear ? I am sure that I have bought toys
" enough for you ; why can't you divert yourself
'^ with them, instead of breaking them to pieces ?**
says a mother to her child, who stands idle and
miserable, surrounded by disjointed dolls, maimed
horses, coaches and one-horse chairs without
wheels, and a nameless wreck of gilded lumber.

A child in this situation is surely more to be
pitied than blamed, for is it not vain to repeat,
*' Why don't you play with your playthings,'*
unless they be such as he can play with, which
is very seldom the case ; and is it not rather
unjust to be angry with him for breaking them
to pieces, when he can by no other device render
them subservient to his amusement ? He breaks
them, not from the love of mischief, but from
the hatred of idleness ; either he wishes to see

VOL, I. B

2 Practical Education.

what his playthings are made of, and how they
are made, or whether he can put them together
again if the parts be once separated. All this is
perfectly innocent ; and it is a pity that his love
of knowledge, and his spirit of activity, should be
repressed by the undistinguishing correction of a
nursery maid, or the unceasing reproof of a go-
verness.

The more natural vivacity and ingenuity
young people possess, the less are they likely
to be amused with the toys which are usually
put into their hands. They require to have
things which continually exercise their senses or
their imagination, their imitative and inventive
powers. The glarmg colours, or the gilding of
toys, may catch the eye, and please for a few
minutes, but unless some use can be made of
them, they will, and ought to be, soon discarded.
A boy who has the use of his limbs, and whose
mind is untainted with prejudice, would in all
probability prefer a substantial cart, in which he
would carry weeds, earth, and stones, up and
down hill, to the finest frail coach and six that
ever came out of a toy-shop: for what could he
do with the coach, after having admired and
sucked the paint, but drag it cautiously along
the carpet of a drawing room, watching the
wheels, which will not turn^ and seeming to
sympathise with the just terrors of the lady and

toys. S

gcintleman within, who appear certain of being
overturned every five minutes. When he is tired
of this, perhaps he may set about to unharness
horses which were never meant to be unharness-
ed ; or to comb their woollen manes and tails,
which usually come off during the operation.

That such toys are frail and useless may,
however, be considered as evils comparatively
small : as long as a child has sense and courage
to destroy his toys, there is no great harm done ;
but, in general, he is taught to set a value upon
them totally independent of all ideas of utility, or
of any regard to his own real feelings; Either
he is conjured to take particular care of them,
because they cost a great deal of money ; or else,
he is taught to admire them as miniatures of
^ome of the fine things on which fine people
pride themselves. Instead of attending to his own
sensations, and learning from his own experience,
he acquires the habit of estimating his pleasures
by the taste and judgment of tliose who happen
to be near him.

" I liked the cart the best/' says the boy,
" but mamma and every body said that the coach
" was the prettiest ; so I chose the coach." —
Shall we wonder if the same principle afterwards
governs him in the choice of " the toys of age?"

A little girl presiding at her baby tea-table is
{)ieased with the notion that she is like her

B 2

4 Practical Education,

mamma : and, before she can have any idea of the
real pleasures of conversation and society, she is
confirmed in the persuasion^ that tattHng and vi-
siting are some of the most enviable privileges of
grown people ; a set of beings whom she believes
to be in possession of all the sweets of happiness.

Dolls, beside the prescriptive right of ancient
usage, can boast of such an able champion in
Rousseau, that it requires no common share of
temerity to attack them. As far as they are the
means of inspiring girls with a taste for neatness
in dress, and with a desire to make those things
for themselves, for which women are usually de-
pendent upon milliners, we must acknowledge
their utility ; but a watchful eye should be kept
upon the child to mark the first symptoms of a
love of finery and fashion. It is a sensible remark
of a late female writer, that whilst young people
work, the mind will follow the hands, the thoughts
are occupied with trifles, and the industry rs
stimulated by vanity.

Our objections to dolls are offered with great
submission and due hesitation. With more con-
fidence we may venture to attack baby-houses :
an unfurnished baby-house might be a good toy,
as it would employ little carpenters and semp-
stresses to fit it up ; but a completely furnished
baby-house proves as tiresome to a child as a
finished seat is to a young nobleman. After

Toys. ' 5

peeping, for in general only a peep can be had
into each apartment, after being throughly sa-
tisfied that nothing is wanting, and that conse-
quently there is nothing to be done, the young
lady lays her doll upon the state bed, if the doll
be not twice as large as the bed, and falls fast
asleep in the midst of her felicity.

Before dolls, baby-houses, coaches, and cups
and saucers, there comes a set of toys, which
are made to imitate the actions of men and wo-
men, and the notes or noises of birds and beasts.
Many of these are ingenious in their construction,
and happy in their effect, but that effect unfor-
tunately is transitory. When the wooden woman
has churned her hour in her empty churn ; when
the stiff-backed man has hammered or sawed till
his arms are broken, or till his employer's arms
are tired ; when the gilt lamb has ba — ad, the
obstinate pig squeaked, and the provoking cuckoo
cried cuck-— oo, till no one in the house can en-
dure the noise ; what remains to be done ? — Woe
betide the unlucky little philosopher, who should
think of inquiring why the woman churned, or
how the bird cried cuckoo ; for it is ten to one
that in prosecuting such an inquiry, just when
he is upon the eve of discovery, he snaps the
wire, or perforates the bellows, and there ensue
" a death-like silence, and a dread repose."

The grief which is felt for spoiling a new playr

6 Practical Education,

thing might be borne, if it were not increased, as
it commonly is, by the reproaches of friends;
much kind eloquence upon these occasions is
frequently displayed, to bring the sufferer to a
proper sense of his folly, till in due time the con-
trite corners of his mouth are drawn down, his
wide eyes fill with tears, and, without knowing
what he jneans, he promises never to be so silly
any more. The future safety of hjs worthless
playthings is thus purchased at the expense of
his understanding, perhaps of his infant integrity;
for children seldom scrupulously adhere to pro-
mises, which they have piade to CF/^ape from
impending punishment.

We have ventured to object to some fashionable
toys : we are bound at least to propose others iu
their place ; and we shall take the ipatter up so-
berly from the nursery.

vOoThe first toys for infants should be merely
such things as may be grasped without danger,
and which might, by the difference of their sizes,
invite comparison : round ivory or wooden sticks
should be put into their little hands ; by degrees
they will learn to lift them to their mouths, and
they will distinguish their sizes : square and cir-
cular bits of wood, balls, cubes, and triangles,
with holes of different sizes made in them, to
admit the sticks, should be their playthings.
No greater apparatus is necessary for the am user

Toys, "^^ ?

ment of the first months of an infant's life. To
ease the pain which they feel from cutting
teeth, infants generally carry to their mouths
whatever they can lay their hands upon; but
they soon learn to distinguish those bodies
which relieve their pain, from those which
gratify their palate ; and, if they are left to them-
selves, they will always choose what is painted in
preference to every thing else ; nor must we
attribute the look of delight with which they
seize toys that are painted red, merely to the
pleasure which their eye takes in the bright
colour, but to the love of the sweet taste which
they suck from the paint. What injury may be
done to the health by the quantity of leaiti which
is thus swallowed, we will not pretend to deter-
mine, but we refer to a medical name of high
authority, * whose cautions probably will not
be treated with neglect. To gratify the eye
with glittering objects, if this be necessary, may
be done with more safety by toys of tin and
polished iron ; a common steel button is a more
desirable plaything to a young child than many
expensive toys ; a few such buttons tied toge-
ther, so as to prevent any danger of their being
swallowed, would continue for some time a
source of amusement.

* Dr. Fothergill.

8 Practical Education.

When a nurse wants to please or pacify a child,
«he stuns its ear with a variety of noises, or daz-
zles its eye with glaring colours or stimulating
light. The eye and the ear are thus fatigued
without advantage, and the temper is hushed
%o a transient calm by expedients which in
time must lose their effect, and which can have
no power over confirmed fretfulness. The plea-
sure of exercising their senses is in itself sufficient
to children without any factitious stimulus,
.which only exhausts their excitability, and
renders them incapable of being amused by a
jVariety of common objects, which would natu-
rally be their entertainment. We do not here
speak tif the attempts made to soothe a child who
is ill : " to charm the sense of pain," so far as it
caa be done by diverting the child's attention
from his own sufferings to outward objects, is
humane and reasonable, provided our com-
passion does not induce in the child's mind
the expectation of continual attendance, and
that impatience of temper which increases bodily
suffering. It would be in vain to read lectures on
philosophy to a nursp, or to expect stoicism from
an infant ; but, perhaps, where mpthers pay at-
tention themselves to their children, they will be
able to prevent many of the consequences of
vulgar prejudice and folly. A nurse's wish is to
have as little trouble as possible with the child

Toys. 9

committed to her charge, and at the same time
to flatter the mother, from whom she expects her
reward. The appearance of extravagant fondness
for the child, of incessant attention to its hmnour,
and absurd submission to its caprices, she imagines
to be the surest method of recommending her-
self to favour. She is not to be imposed upon
by the faint and affected rebukes of the fond
mother, who exclaims, '^ Oh, nurse, indeed,
" you do spoil that child sadly ! — Oh, nurse,
*^ upon my word she governs you entirely! —
" Nurse, you must not let her have her own way
^' always. — Never mind her crying, I beg,
*^ nurse." — Nurse smiles, sees that she has
gained her point, and promises to do exactly
what her mistress desires. Now if, on the
contrary, she perceived that the mother was
neither to be flattered nor pleased by these
means, one motive for spoiling the child would
immediately cease : another strong one would,
it is true, still remain. A nurse wishes to
save herself trouble, and she frequently con-
sults her own convenience when she humours
an infant. She hushes it to sleep, that she
may leave it safely ; she stops it from crying,
that she may not hear an irritating noise, that
she may relieve herself as soon as possible from
the painful weakness of compassion, or that she
may avoid the danger of being interrogated by

10 Practical Education.

the family as to the cause of the disturbance.
She thinks it is less trouble to yield to caprice
and ill humour than to prevent or cure it. In
reality it is not ; for a humoured child in time
plagues its attendant infinitely more than it
would have done with reasonable management.
If it were possible to convince nurses of this,
they would sacrifice perhaps the convenience of
a moment to the peace of future hours, and they
would not be eager to quell one storm, at the
hazard of being obliged to endure twenty more
boisterous ; the candle would then no more be
thrust almost into the infant's eyes to make it
take notice of the light through the mist of
tears, the eternal bunch of keys would not
dance and jingle at every peevish summons,
nor would the roarings of passion be overpowered
by insulting songs, or soothed by artful caresses :
the child would then be caressed and amused
when he looks smiling and good-humoured, and
all parties would be much happier.

Practical education begins very early, even
in the nursery ; without the mountebank pre-
tence, that miracles can be performed by the
turning of a straw, without the dictatorial ana-
thematizing tone, which calls down vengeance
upon those who do not follow to an iota the
injunctions of a theorist, we may simply observe,
that parents would save themselves a great

6

Toys. 1 J

deal of trouble, and their children some pain,
if they would pay attention to their early
education. The temper acquires habits much
earlier than is usually apprehended; the first
impressions which infants receive, and the first
habits which they learn from their nurses, in-
fluence the temper and disposition long after
the slight causes which produced them are for-
gotten. More care and judgment than usually
fall to the share of a nurse are necessary, to
cultivate the disposition which infants show to
exercise their senses, so as neither to suffer them
to become indolent and torpid from want of
proper objects to occupy their attention, nor yet
to exhaust their senses by continual excitation.
By ill-timed restraints, or injudicious incite-
ments, the nurse frequently renders the child
obstinate or passionate. An infant should never
be interrupted in its operations ; whilst it wishes
to use its hand3, we should not be impatient
to make it walk, nor when it is pacing with all
the attention to its centre of gravity that is ex-
erted by a rope dancer, suddenly ari-est its pro-
gress, and insist upon its pronouncing the scanty
vocabulary which we have compelled it to
learn. When children are busily trying ex-
periments upon objects within their reach, we
should not, by way of saving them trouble,
break the course of their ideas, and totally pre-

12 Practical Education.

vent them from acquiring knowledge by their
own experience. When a fooHsh nurse sees
a child attempting to reach or Hft any thing,
she runs immediately, " Oh, dear love, it can t
" do it, it can't !—r II do it for it, so I will !"—
If the child be trying the difference between
pushing , and pulling, rolling or sliding, the
powers of the wedge or the lever, the officious
nurse hastens instantly to display her own know-
ledge of the mechanic powers ; " Stay, love,
*^ stay ; that is not the way to do it — I'll show it
*^ the right way — See here — look at me, love.'*
— ^Without interrupting a child in the moment
of action, proper care might previously be
taken to remove out of its way those things
which can really hurt it, and a just degree of
attention must be paid to its first experiments
upon hard and heavy, and more especially
upon sharp, brittle, and burning bodies ; but
this degree of care should not degenerate into
cowardice; it is better that a child should
tumble down or burn its fingers, than that it
should not learn the use of its limbs and its
senses. We should for another reason take care
to put all dangerous things effectually out of
the child's reach, instead of saying perpetually,
" Take care, don't touch that !— don't do that !—
" let that alone !" — The child, who scarcely un-
derstands the words, and not at all the reason of

4

Toys. 13

these prohibitions, is frightened by the tone and
countenance with which they are uttered and
accompanied, and he either becomes indolent
or cunning ; he desists from exertion, or seizes
the moment to divert himself with forbidden
objects, when the watchful eye that guards them
is withdrawn. It is in vain to encompass the
restless prisoner with a fortification of chairs, and
to throw him an old almanack to tear to pieces,
or an old pincushion to explore ; the enterpriz-
ing adventurer soon makes his escape from
this barricado, leaves his goods behind hirn, and
presently is again in what the nurse calls mis-
chief.

Mischief is with nurses frequently only an-
other name for any species of activity which
they find troublesome : the love which children
are supposed to have for pulling things out of
their places is in reality the desire of seeing
things in motion, or of putting things into dif-
ferent situations. They will like to put the
furniture in a room in its proper place, and to
arrange every thing in what we call order, if they
can make these equally permanent sources of
active amusement ; but when things are once in
their places, the child has nothing more to do,
and the more quickly each chair arrives at its
destined situation, the sooner comes the dreaded
state of idleness and quiet,

14 Practical Education,

A nursery, or a room in which young chil-
dren are to live, should never have any furni-
ture in it which thoy can spoil ; as few things
as possible should be left within their reach
which they are not to touch, and at the same
time they should be provided with the means
of amusing themselves, not with painted or gilt
toys, but with pieces of wood of various shapes
and sizes, which they may build up and pull
down, and put in a variety of different forms and
positions ; balls, pulleys, wheels, strings, and
strong little carts, proportioned to their age, and
to the things which they want to carry in them^
should be their playthings.

Prints will be entertaining to children at a very
early age ; it would be endless to enumerate the
uses that may be made of them ; they teach ac-
curacy of sight, they engage the attention, and

employ the imagination. In 1777 we saw L ^

a child of two years old, point out every piece of
furniture in the French prints of Gil Bias ; in the
print of the Canon at Dinner^ he distinguished the
knives, forks, spoons, bottles, ^nd every thing
upon the table ; the dog lying upon the mat, and
the bunch of keys hanging at Jacintha's girdle ;
be told, with much readiness, the occupation of
every figure in the print, and could supply
from his imagination what is supposed to be
hidden by the foremost parts of all the objects.

Toys. 15

A child of four years old was asked, what was
meant by something that was very indistinctly
represented as hanging round the arm of a figure
in one of the prints in the London Cries. He
said it was a glove, though it had as little
resemblance to a glove as to a ribbon or a purse.
When he was asked how he knew that it was
a glove, he answered, " that it ought to be a
'^ glove, because the woman had one upon her
" other arm, and none upon that where the
'' thing was hanging." Having seen the gown^
of a female figure, in a print, hanging obliquely,
the same child said, " The wind blows that
" woman's gown back." We mention these
little circumstances from real life, to show how
early prints may amuse children, and how
quickly things unknown are learnt by the
relations which they bear to what was known
before. We should at the same time observe,
that children are very apt to make strange
mistakes, and hasty conclusions, when they be-»
gin to reason from analogy. A child having
asked what was meant by some marks in the
forehead of an old man in a print, and having
been told, upon some occasion, that old people
were wiser than young ones, brought a print,
containing several figures, to his mother, and
told her that one, which he pointed to, was
wiser than -all ,;thc rest; upon inquiry, \i was

16 Practical Education,

found that he had formed this notion from seeing
that one figure was wrinkled^ and that the
others were not.

Prints for children should be chosen with
great care ; they should represent objects which
are familiar, the resemblances should be accu-
rate, and the manners should be attended to, or
at least the general moral that is to be drawn
from them. The attitude of Sephora, the box-
ing lady in Gil Bias,. must appear unnatural to
children who have not lived with termagant
heroines. Perhaps, the first ideas of grace,
beauty, and propriety, are considerably influenced
by the first pictures and prints which please chil-
dren. Sir Joshua Reynolds tells us, that he took
a child with him through a room full of pictures,
and that the child stopped, with signs of aversion,
whenever it came to any picture of a figure in a
constrained attitude.

Children soon judge tolerably well of propor*
tion in drawing, where they have been used to
see the objects which are represented : but we
often give them prints of objects, and of animals
especially, which they have never seen, and
in which no sort of proportion is observed.
The common prints of animals must give chil-
dren false ideas. The mouse and the elephant
are nearly of the same size ; and the salmon and
whak fill the same space in' the page. Paint-

^ Toys. IJT

ters, who put figures of men amongst their
buildings, give the idea of the proportionate
height immediately to the eye ; this is, per-
haps, the best scale we can adopt; in every
print fbr children this should be attended to.
Some idea of the relative sizes of the animals
they see represented would then be given,
and the imagination would not be filled with
ehimerasi ^^- ^

After having been accustomed to examine
prints, and to trace their resemblance to real
objects, children will probably wish. to try their
own powers of imitation. At this moment no
toy, which we could invent for them, would
give them half so much pleasure as a pencil.
If we do not put a pencil into their hands before
they are able to do any thing with it, but
make random marks all over a sheet of paper,
it will long continue a real amusement and oc-
cupation. No matter how rude their first at-
tempts at imitation may be ; if the attention
of children be occupied^ our point is gained.
Girls have generally one advantage at this age
over boys, in the exclusive possession of th^
scissars : hoW many camelsj, and elephants with
amazing trunks, are cut out by the industrious
scissars of a busy, and therefore happy littld
girl, during a winter evening, w^hich ^^asses so
VOL. I. c

18 " ' Practical Education,

heavily, and appears so immeasurably long, to
the idle.

Modelling in clay or wax might probably be a
useful amusement about this age, if the materials
were so prepared, that the children could avoid
being every moment troublesome to others whilst
they are at work. The making of baskets, and
the weaving of tape, curtain and sash-line, may
be made employments for children ; with pro-
per preparations, they might at least be occupied
with these things ; much, perhaps, might not
be produced by their labours, but it is a great
deal to give early habits of industry. Let us do
what we will, every person, who has had any
experience Upon the subject, must know that
it is scarcely possible to provide sufficient
and suitable occupations for young children :
this is one of the first difficulties in education.
Those who have never tried the experiment are
astonished to find it such a laborious business
as it really is, to find employments for children
from three to six years old. It is perhaps
better, that our pupils should be entirely idle,
than that they should be half employed. " My
*^ dear, have you nothing to do ?" should be
spoken in sorrow rather than in anger. When
they see other people employed and happy,
children, who have nothing to do, feel mortified

Toys^ 19

and miserable. Count Run^ ford's was an ex-
cellent scheme for exciting sympathetic industry
amongst the children of the poof at Munich ;
in the large hall, where the elder children were
busy in spinning, there was a range of seats for
the younger, who were not yet permitted to
work ; these, who were compelled to sit idle
and see the busy multitude, grew extremely
uneasy in their own situation, and became
anxious to be employed. We need not use any
compulsion or any artifice ; such parents as
think of educating their own children, are usu-
ally employed some hours in the day in read-
ing, writingj business, or conversation ; during
these hours children will naturally feel the
want of occupation, and will, from sympathy,
from ambition, and from impatience of insup-
portable ennui, desire with anxious faces, " to
" have something to do." Instead of loading;
them with playthings, by way of relieving
their misery, we should honestly tell them, if
that be the truth, " I am sorry I cannot find and
" thing for you to do at presetit. I hope you
*' will soon be able to employ yourself. What
" a happ}'^ thing it will be for you to be able,
** by and by, to read, and Write, and draw ; then
*^ you will never be forced to sit idle.*^

The pains of idleness stimulate children to
industry, if they are from tim€ to time properly

c 2 i

20 Practical Education.

contrasted with the pleasures of occupation.
We should associate cheerfulness, and praise,
and looks of approbation, with industry; and
whenever young people invent employments for
themselves, they should be assisted as much as
possible, and encouraged. At that age when
they are apt to grow tired in half an hour of their
playthings, we had better give them playthings
only for a very short time, at intervals, in the day ;
and, instead of waiting till they are tired, wc
should take the things away before they are weary
of them. Nor should we discourage the inqui-
sitive genius from examining into the structure
of their toys, whatever they may be. The same
ingenious and active dispositions, which prompt
these inquiries, will secure children from those
numerous temptations to do mischief, to which
the idle are exposed. Ingenious children are
pleased with contrivances which answer the
purposes for which they are intended, and they
feel sincere regret whenever these are injured or
destroyed : this we mention as a farther comfort
and security for parents, who, in the company
of young mechanics, are apt to tremble for their
furniture. Children who observe, and who begin
to amuse themselves with thought^ are not so
actively hostile in their attacks upon inanimate
objects.

We were once present at the dissection of a

Toys. 2 1

wooden cuckoo, which was attended with extreme
pleasure by a large family of children ; it was not
one of the children who broke the precious toy,
but it was the father who took it to pieces. Nor
was it the destruction of the plaything which
entertained the company, but the sight of the
manner in which it was constructed. Many
guesses were made by the spectators about the
internal structure of the cuckoo, and the astonish-
ment of the company was universal, when the
bellows were cut open, and the simple contrivance
was revealed to view. So far from being indifferent

to the destruction of this plaything, H , the

little girl of four years old to whom it belonged,
remembered, several months afterwards, to remind
her father of his promise to repair it.

Several toys give pleasure only by exciting
surprise. This species of delight is soon over,
and is succeeded by a desire to triumph in the
ignorance, the credulity, or the cowardice of
their companions. Hence that propensity to
play tricks, which is often injudiciously encou-
raged by the smiles of parents, who are apt to
mistake it for a proof of wit and vivacity. They
forget, that *' gentle dulness ever loved a joke ;'*
and that even wit and vivacity, if^ they become
troublesome and mischievous, will be feared and
shunned. Many juggling tricks and puzzles are
ingenious ; and as far as they can exercise the

22 Fractical Education.

invention or the patience of young people, they
are useful. Care, however, should be taken, to
separate the ideas of deceit and of ingenuity, and
to prevent children from glorying in the mere
possession of a secret.

Toys which afford trials of dexterity and acti-
vity, such as tops, kites, hoops, balls, battle-
dores and shuttlecocks, ninepins, and cup and
ball, are excellent; and we see that thpy are conse-
quently great and lasting favourites with children ;
their senses, their understanding, and their pas-
sions, are all agreeably interested and exercised
' by these amusements. They emulate ea>ch other ;
but, as some will probably excel at one game,
and some at another, this emulation will not
degenerate into envy. There is more danger that
this hateful passion should be created in the minds
pf young competitors at those games, where it is
supposed that some knack or mystery is to be
learned before they can be played with success.
Whenever children play at such games, we should
point out to them how and why it is that they
succeed or fail : we may show them that, in
reality, there is tio mystery in any thing, but that
from certain causes certain effects will follow;
that, after trying a number of experiments, the
circumstances essential to success may be disco-
vered ; and that all the ease and dexterity, which
we often attribute to the power of natural genius.

Toy€. 23

is simply the consequence of practice and in-
dustry. This sober lesson may be taught to
children without putting it into graye vyords, and
without formal precepts. A gentleman once as-
tonished a family of children by his dexterity ia
playing at bilboquet : he caught the ball sixteen
times successively with great rapidity upon the
spike ; this success appeared miraculous, and
the father, who observed that it had made a great
impression upon the little spectators, took that
opportunity to show the use of spinning the ball,
to make the hole at the bottom ascend in a proper
direction. The nature of centrifugal motion, and
its effect in preserving the parallelism of motion^
if we may be allowed the expression, was
explained, not at once, but at different in-tervals,
to the young audience. As much only was
explained at a time as the children could under-
stand, without fatiguing their attention, and the
abstruse subject vv^as made familiar by the mode
of illustration that was adopted.

It is surprising how much children may learn
from playthings when they are judiciously chosen,
and when the habit of reflection and observation
is associated with the ideas of amusement. A
little boy of nine years old, who had a hoop to play
with, asked " why a hoop, or a plate, if rolled
"^ upon its edge, keeps up as long as it rolls, but
" falls as soon as it stops, and will not stand if

2-1 Practical Education,

*^ you try to make it stand still upon its edge."
Was not the boy's understanding as well em-
ployed whilst he was thinking of this phaenome-
non, which he observed whilst he was beating
his hoop, as it could possibly have been by the
most learned preceptor ?

When a pedantic schoolmaster sees a boy
eagerly watching a paper kite, he observes,.
^' What a pity it is that children cannot be made
^^ to mind their grammar as well as their kites !"
and he ajdds perhaps some peevish ejaculation on
the natural idleness of boys, and on that pernicious
love of play against which he is doomed to wage
perpetual war. A man of sense will see the same
sight with a different eye ; in this pernicious love
of play he will discern the symptoms of a love of
science, and, instead of deploring the natural
idleness of children, he will admire the activity
which they display in the pursuit of knowledge.
He will feel that it is his business to direct this
activity, to furnish his pupil with materials for
fresh combinations, to put him, or to let him
put himself, in situations where he can make
useful observations, and acquire that experience
which cannot be bought, and which no masters
can communicate.

It will not be beneath the dignity of a philo-
sophic tutor to consider the different effects
which the most common plays of children have{

Toys, 25

upon the habits of the understanding and temper.
Whoever has watched children putting together
a dissected map must have been amused with
the trial between wit and judgment. The child
who quickly perceives resemblances catches
instantly at the first bit of the wooden map
that has a single hook or hollow that seems
likely to answer his purpose ; he makes perhaps
twenty different trials before he hits upon the
right combination ; whilst the wary youth, who
has been accustomed to observe differences, cau-
tiously examines with his eye the whole outline
before his hand begins to move ; and, having ex-
actly compared the two indentures, he joins them
with sober confidence, more proud of never dis-
gracing his judgment by a fruitless attempt, than
ambitious of rapid success. He is slow, but sure^
and wins the day.

There are some plays which require presence
of mind, and which demand immediate atten-
tion to what is actually going forward, in which
children capable of the greatest degree of abstract
attention are most apt to be defective. They
have many ideas, but none of them ready, and
their knowledge is useless, because it is recol-
lected perhaps but one moment too late. Could we
in language suitably dignified describe the game
of " birds, beasts, and fishes," we should venture
to prescribe it as no very painful remedy for

26 Practical Education,

these absent and abstracted personages. When
the handkerchief or the ball is thrown^ and when
his beast's name is called for, the absent Httle
philosopher is obhged to collect his scattered
thoughts instantaneously, or else he exposes
himself to the ridicule of nanriing perhaps a fish
instead of a beast. To those children, who
on the contrary are not sufficiently apt to abstract
their attention, and who are what Bacon calls
*^ birdwitted," we should recommend a solitary-
board. At the solitary- board they must with-
draw their thoughts from all external objects,
hear nothing that is said, and fix their attention
solely upon the figure and the pegs before them,
else they will never succeed ; and if they make
one error in their calculations, they lose all
their labour. Those who are precipitate, and
not sufficiently attentive to the consequences of
their own actions, may receive many salutary
lessons at the draught or chess-board, happy
if they can learn prudence and foresight by fre-
quently losing the battle.

We are not quite so absurd as to imagine that
any great or permanent effects can be produced
by such slight causes as a game at draughts, or
at solitary-board, but the combination of a num-
ber of apparent trifles is not to be neglected ia
education.

We have never yet mentioned what will pro-
' 6

Toys. 27

bably first occur to those who would invent em-
ployments for children. We have never men-
tioned those great delights to children, a spade,
a hoe^ a rake, a wheelbarrow. We hold all these
in proper respect, but we did not sooner mention
them, because, if introduced too early, they are
useless. We must not expect that a boy of six
or seven years old can find, for any length of
time, sufficient daily occupation in a garden : he
has not strength for hard labour ; he can dig soft
earth, he can weed groundsel, and other weeds
which take no deep root ; but after he has
weeded his little garden, and sowed his seeds,
there must be a suspension of his labours ; fre-
quently children, for want of something to do,
when they have sowed flower-seeds in their
crooked beds, dig up the hopes of the year to
make a new walk, or to sink a well in their gar-
den. We mention these things that parents may
not be disappointed, or expect more from the
occupation of a garden than it can at a very early
age afford, A garden is an excellent resource
for children, but they should have a variety of
other occupations: rainy days, and frost and snow,
will come, and then children must be occupied
within doors. We immediately think of a little
set of carpenter's tools, to supply them with ac-
tive amusement. Boys will probably be more
inclined to attempt making models than drawings

28 Practical Education.

of the furniture which appears to be the most
easy to imitate ; they will imagine/ that if they
had but tools, they could make boxes, and desks,
and beds, and chests of drawers, and tables, and
chairs inumerable. But, alas! these fond
hopes are too soon dissipated. Suppose a boy of
seven years old to be provided with a small set
of carpenter's tools, his father thinks, perhaps,
that he has made him completely happy ; but a
week afterwards the father finds dreadful marks
of the file and saw upon his mahogany tables ;
the use of these tools is immediately interdicted
until a bench shall be procured. Week after
week passes away, till at length the frequently
reiterated speech of, *' Papa, you bid me put you
" in mind about my bench, Papa ! " has its effect,
and the bench appears. Now the young carpen-
ter thinks he is quite set up in the world, tind
projects carts and boxes, and reading-desks and
writing-desks for himself and for his sisters, if
he have any ; but when he comes to the execu-
tion of his plans, what new difficulties, what new
wants arise ! the wood is too thick or too thin ;
it splits, or it cannot be cut with a knife ; wire,
nails, glue, and, above all, the means of heating
the glue, are wanting. At last some frail machine,
stuck together with pegs or pins, is produced,
and the workman is usually either too much ridi-
culed, or too much admired. The step from

Toys. 29

pegging to morticing is a very difficult step, and
the want of a morticing chisel is insuperable ;
one tool is called upon to do the duty of another,
and the pricker comes to an untimely end, in
doing the hard duty of the punch ; the saw
wants setting ; the plane will plane no longer ;
and the mallet must be used instead of the ham-
mer, because the hammer makes so much noise
that the ladies of the family have voted for its
being locked up. To all these various evils the
child submits in despair, and finding, after many
fruitless exertions, that he cannot make any of
the fine things he had projected, he throws aside
his tools, and is deterred by these disappoint-
ments from future industry and ingenuity. Such
are the consequences of putting excellent tools
into the hands of children before they can pos-
sibly use them : but the tools wlich are useless
at seven years old, will be a most valuable
present at eleven or twelve, and for this age
it will be prudent to reserve them. A rational
toy-shop should be provided with all manner of
carpenter's tools, with wood properly prepared
for the young workman, and with screws, nails,
glue, emery-paper, and a variety of articles
which it would be tedious to enumerate ; but
which, if parents could readily meet with a
convenient assemblage, they would willingly
purchase for their children. The trouble of

30 Practical Education.

hunting through a number of different shops
prevents them at present from purchasing
such things ; besides, perhaps they may not
be sufficiently good carpenters to know distinctly
every thing that is necessary for a young
workman.

Cardj pasteboard, substantial but not sharp
pointed scissars, w^ire, gum, and wax, may in
some degree supply the want of carpenter's
tools at that early age, when we have observed
that the saw and plane are useless. Models of
common furniture should be made as toys, which
may be taken to pieces, so that all their parts,
and the manner in which they are put together,
might be seen distinctly ; the names of the dif-
ferent parts should be written or stamped upon
them : by these means the names will be asso-
ciated with realities, children will retain them in
their memory, and they will neither learn by rote
technical terms, nor will they be retarded in theif
progress in mechanical invention by the want of
language. Before young people can use tools^
these models will amuse and exercise their at-
tention. From models of furniture wo- may ^o
on to models of architecture ; pillars of different;
orders, the roofs of houses, the manner of slating
and tiling, &c. Then we may proceed to mo-
dels of simple machines, choosing, at first, such
as can be immediately useful to children in their

Toys. 31

own amusements, such as wheelbarrows^ carts,
cranes, scales, steelyards, jacks, and pumps, •
which children ever view with eager eyes.

From simple it will be easy to proceed gradu-
ally to models of more complicated machinery ;
it would be tiresome to give a list of these ;
models of instruments used by manufacturers
and artists should be seen ; many of these are
extremely ingenious ; spinning-wheels, looms,
paper-mills, wind-mills, water-mills, might with
great advantage be shown in miniature to
children. We have found that two or three
hundred bricks formed in plaster of Paris, on a
scale of a quarter of an inch to an inch, with a
few lintels, &c. in proportion, have been a lasting
and useful fund of amusement.

The distracting noise and bustle, the multi-
tude of objects which all claim the attention at
once, prevent young people from understanding
much of what they see, when they are first taken
to look at large manufactories. If they had pre-
viously acquired some general idea of the whole,
and some particular knowledge of the different
parts, when they get into these places they
would not, bewildered by the sight of wheels
and levers, " stare round, see nothing, and come
" home content;" nor would the explanations
of the workmen be all jargon to them ; they
would understand some of the technical terms,

3'2 . Practical Education,

which so much alarm the intellects of those who
hear them for the first time.

It would be highly useful to children to be ta-
ken to manufactories, under the care of a per-
son properly qualified to explain them. The
workmen at particular places might be prepared
to assist the teacher ; and by returning four or five
times to the same place^ and by having but little
shown at a time, a better knowledge of the essen-
tial parts of trades might be acquired, than by the
most laborious and expensive instruction at home.

We may exercise the ingenuity and judgment
of children by these models of machines, by
showing them first the thing to be done^ and ex-
citing them to invent the best means of doing it j
afterwards give the models as the reward for
their ingenuity^ and let them compare their own
inventions with the contrivances actually in use
amongst artificers : by these means young people
may bb led to compare a variety of different con^
trivances ; they will discern what parts of a ma-
chine are superfluous, and what inadequate, and
they will class particular observations gradually
under general principles. It may be thought,
that this will tend to give children only mechani-
cal invention, or what we should call perhaps
the invention of machines ; and those who do
not require this particular talent, will despise it
as unnecessary in what are called the liberal pro-

Toys. S3.

fessions. Without attempting to cotnpar^ the
value of different intellectual talents, we may
observe, that they are all in some measure de-
pendent upon each other.

Chemical toys will be more difficult to manage
than mechanical, because the materials, requisite
to try many chemical experiments, are such as
cannot be safely put into the hands of children.
But a list of experiments, and of the things ne-
cessary to try them, might easily be drawn
out by a chemist who would condescend to
such a task;* and if these materials, with pro-
per directions, were to be fonnd at a rational
toy-shop, parents would not be afraid of burning
or poisoning their children in their iirst chemical
lessons. In some families girls are taught the
confectionary art ;. might not this be advantage-
ously connected with some knowledge of che-
mistry, and might not they be better taught than
by Mrs. RaiFeld or Mrs. Glass P'f' Every culi-
nary operation may be performed as an art, pro-
bably, as well by a cook as by a chemist ; but, if
the chemist did not assist the cook now and then
with a little science, epicures would have great
i^ason for lamentation. We do not by any means

♦ Mr. Accum has, since this book was first printed, exe-
cuted a similar plan.

t We do not mean to do injustice to Mrs. Raffeid's pro-
fessional skill.

VOL. I. D

34 Practical Education.

advise, that girls should be instructed in confec-
tionary arts at the hazard of their keeping com-
pany with servants. If they learn any thing of
this sort, there will be many precautions neces-
sary to separate them from servants : we do not
advise that these hazards should be run ; but, if
girls learn confectionary, let them learn the prin-
ciples of chemistry, which may assist in this
art.*

Children are very fond of attempting experi-
ments in dying, and are curious about vegetable
dyes; but they can seldom proceed for want
of the means of boiling, evaporating, distilling,
and subliming. Small stills, and small tea-ket-
tles and lamps, would be extremely useful to
them : these might be used in the room with the
children's parents, which would prevent all dan-
ger : they should continue to be the property of
the parents, and should be produced only when
they are wanted. No great apparatus is neces-
sary for showing children the first simple opera-
tions in chemistry ; such as evaporation, crystal-
lization, calcination, detonation, effervescence,
and saturation. Water and fire, salt and sugar,
lime and vinegar, are not very difficult to be
procured; and a wine-glass is to be found in

♦ V. Diderot's ingenious preface to " Chymie de Gout et
de rOdorat."

4

, Toys. 35

every house. The difference between dn acid
and alkaH should be early taught to children ;
indeed many grown people begin to learn che-
mistry, without distinctly knowing what is meant
by those terms.

In the selection of chemical experiments for
young people, it will be best to avoid such as
have the appearance of jugglers' tricks^ as it is
not our purpose to excite the amazement of chil-
dren for the moment, but to give them a perma-
nent taste for science. In a well known book^
called " Hooper's Rational Recreations,'' which
are chiefly translations from Ozanam, there
are many ingenious experiments ; but through
the whole work there is such a want of an en-
larged mind, and such a love of magic and de-
ception appears, as must render it not only use-
less, but unsafe, for young people, in its present
state. Perhaps, a selection might be made from
it, in which these defects might be avoided :
such titles as " The real apparition : the con*^
^^ federate counters: the Jive beatitudes: and the
** book of fate ; " may be changed for others
more rational. Receipts for " Changing winter
" into spinngi^ for making " Self-raising pyra-
** mids^ enchanted mirrors y and intelligent flies y^
might be omitted, or explained to advantage.
Recreation the fifth^ " To tell by the dial of a
D 2

^6 Practical Education.

** ?^atch at what hour any person intends to
^^rise;" Recreation the twelfth, '' To produce
*^ the appearance of a phantom on a pedestal
*^ placed on the middle of a table ; " and Recre-
ation the thirtieth, '•' To write several letters
" which contain no meaning upon cards, to make
*^ them, after they have been twice shuffled, give
** an answer to a question that shall be pro-
" posed,'* as, for example, " What is love ? "
scarcely come under the denomination of Ra-
tional Recreations, nor will they much conduce
to the end proposed in the introduction to Hoo-
per's work ; that is to say, in his own words,
*^ To enlarge and fortify the mind of man, that
*^ he may advance with tranquil steps through
^ the flowery paths of investigation, till arriving
^^ at some noble eminence, he beholds, with
'^ awful astonishment, the boundless regions of
^^ Science, and becomes animated to attain a still
^^ more lofty station, whilst his heart is inces-
*^ santly wrapt with joys of which the groveling
** herd have ho conception.'*

Even in thiose chemical experiments in his
book^ which are really ingenious and entertain*
ing, we should avoid giving the old absurd titles,
which can only confuse the understanding, and
spoil the taste of children. The tree of Diana^
and Philosophic ivooly are 6i this species. It is

Toys. 37

not necessary to make every thing marvellous
and magical, to fix the attention of young peo-
pie ; if they are properly educated, they will find
more amusement in discovering or in searching
for the cause of the eifects which they see, than
in a blind admiration of the juggkr's tricks.

In the papers of the Manchester Society^ in
Franklins letters, in Priestley's and PercivaFs
works, there may be . found a variety of simple
experiments which require no great apparatus,
and which will at once amuse and instruct. All
the papers of the Manchester Society, upon the
repulsion and attraction of oil and water, are
suited to children, because they state a variety
of simple facts ; the mind is led to reason upon
them, and induced to judge of the different con-
clusions which are drawn from them by different
people. The names of Dr. Percival, or I>r.
Wall, will have no weight with children ; they
will compare only the reasons and experiments.
Oil and water, a cork, a needle, a plate, and a
glass tumbler, are all the things necessary for
these experiments. Mr. Henry's experiments
upon the influence that carbonic acid gas has on
vegetation, and several of Reaumur's experi-
ments, mentioned in the Memoirs of the French
Academy of Sciences, are calculated to please
young people much, and can be repeated without
expense or difficulty.

a

38 Practical Education.

To those who acquire habits of observation
every thing that is to be seen or heard becomes
a source of amusement. Natural history inte-
rests children at an early age ; but their curiosity
and activity is too often repressed and restrained
by the ignorance or indolence of their tutors.
The most inquisitive genius grows tired of re-
peating, " Pray look at this ? What is it ? What
^^ can the use of this be ? " when the constant
answer is, '^ Oh ! it's nothing worth looking at,
*^ throw it away, it will dirty the house." Those
who have attended to the ways of children and
parents well know, that there are many little
inconveniencies attending their amusements,
which the sublime eye of the theorist in educa-
tion overlooks, but which are essential to prac-
tical success. " It will dirty the house," puts a
stop to many of the operations of the young phi-
losopher ; nor is it reasonable that his experi-
ments should interfere with the necessaiy regu-
larity of a well ordered family. But most well
ordered families allow their horses and their dogs
to have houses to themselves ; cannot one room
be allotted to the children of the family ?

To direct children in their choice of fossils,
and to give them some idea of the general ar-
rangements of mineralogy, toy-shops should be
provided with specimens of ores, &c. properly
labelled and arranged, in drawers, so that they

Toys. 39

may be kept in order; children should have
empty shelves in their cabinets, to be filled with
their own collections. They will then know
how to direct their researches, and how to dis-
pose of their treasures. If they have proper
places to keep things in they will acquire a taste
for order by the best means, ^by feeling the use
of it : to either sex this taste will be highly
advantageous. Children who are active and
industrious, and who have a taste for natural
history, often collect with much enthusiasm a
variety of pebbles and common stones, which
they value as great curiosities, till some surly
mineralogist happens to see them, and condemns
them all with one supercilious "Pshaw!" or
else a journey is to be taken, and there is no
way of packing up the heterogeneous cumber-
some collection, which must of course be aban-
doned. Nay, if no journey is to be taken, a
visitor perhaps comes unexpectedly, the little
naturalist's apartment must be vacated on a few
minutes' notice, and the labour of years falls a
sacrifice in an instant to the housemaid's undis-
tinguishing broom.

It may seem trifling to insist so much upon
such slight things, but in fact nothing can be done
in education without attention to minute cir-
cumstances. Many who have genius to sketch
large plans have seldom patience to attend to

40 Practical Education.

the detail which is necessary for their accom-
plishment. This is a useful, and therefore no
h^uaailiating drudgery.

. ^;Wiih the little cabinets which we have men-
tioned should be sold cheap microscopes, which
will unfold a world of new delights to children ;
and it is very probable that children will not
only be entertained with looking at objects
through a microscope, but they will consider
the nature of the magnifying glass. They should
:Bot be rebu&d with the answer, *' Oh, it's only
*^ a common magnifying glass," but they should
be eneouraged in their laudable curiosity ; they
may easily be led to try slight experiments in
qptics, which will at least give the habits of ob-
servation and attention. In Dr. Priestley's His-,
tpiry of Vision many experiments may be found
which are not above the comprehension of chil-
dren of ten or eleven years old ; we do not ima-
gine that any science can be taught by desultory
experiments, but we think that a taste for science
Wiay early be given by making it entertaining,
and by exciting young people to exercise their
reasoning and inventive faculties upon every
olyect which surrounds them. We may point
out that great discoveries have often been made
by attention to slkht circumstances. The blow-
ing of soap bubbles, as it was first performed as
a scientific experiment by the celebrated Dr.

Toys. 41

Hook before the Royal Society, makes a conspi-
cuous, figure in Dr. Priestley's chapter on the
reflection of light ; this may be read to children^
and they will be pleased when they observe that
what at first appeared only a trifling amusement^
has occupied the understanding, and excited the
admiration, of some great philosophers.

Every child observes the colours which are to
be seen in panes of glass windows ; in Priestley's
History of Vision there are some experiments of
Hook's and Lord Brereton's upon these colours,
which may be selected. Buffbn's observations
u]X)n blue and green shadows are to be found in
the same work, and they are very entertaining.
lu Dr. Franklin's letters there are numerous
experiments which are particularly suited (o
young people ; especially as in every instance
he speaks with that candour and openness to
conviction, and with that patient desire to dis-
cover truth, which we should wish our pupils to
admire and imitate.

The history of the experiments which have
been tried in the progress of any science, and of
the manner in which observations of minute facts
have led to great discoveries, will be useful to
the understanding, and will gradually make the
mind expert in that mental algebra, on which
both reasoning and invention (which is perhaps
only a more rapid species of reasoning) depend.

42 Py^actical Education.

In drawing out a list of experiments for children,
it will therefore he advantageous to place them
in that order which will best exhibit their rela-
tive connexion ; and, instead of showing young
people the steps of a discovery, w^e should fre-
quently pause to try if they can invent. In this
our pupils will succeed often beyond our expec-
tations ; and, whether it be in mechanics, che-
mistry, geometry, or in the arts, the same course
of education will be found to have the same ad-
vantages. When the powers of reason have been
cultivated, and the inventive faculty exercised ;
when general habits of voluntary exertion and
patient perseverance have been acquired, it will be
easy either for the pupil himself, or for his friends,
to direct his abilities to whatever is necessary for
his happiness. We do not use the phrase, success
in the world; because, if it conveys any distinct
ideas, it implies some which are perhaps incon-
sistent with real happiness.

Whilst our pupils occupy and amuse them-
selves with observation, experiment, and inven-
tion we must take care that they have a suffi-
cient variety of manual and bodily exercises.
We have, after long experience, found that
sawing and splitting wood for firing is an amuse-
ment and a species of labour to which children
recur with pleasure : large blocks are not fit
for this purpose; but branches of five or six

Toys. 43

inches diameter are easily sawed and split by
children of six years old. A turning-lathe, and
a work-bench, will aiFord them constant active
employment ; and when young people can
invent, they feel great pleasure in the execution
of their own plans. We do not speak from
vague theory ; we have seen the daily pleasures
of the work-bench, and the persevering eager-
ness with which young people work in wood,
and brass, and iron, when tools are put into
their hands at a proper age, and when their
understanding has been previously taught the
simple principles of mechanics. It is not to be
expected that any exhortations we could use
could prevail upon a father, who has no taste for
mechanics, or for chemistiy, to spend any of his
time in his children's laboratory, or at their
work-bench ; but in his choice of a tutor he
may perhaps supply his own defects, and he will
consider that even by interesting himself in the .
daily occupations of his children, he will do '
more in the advancement of their education than
can be done by paying money to a hundred
masters.

We do not mean to confine young people to
the laboratory or the work-bench, for exercise ;
the more exercises are varied the better. Upon
this subject we shall speak more fully hereafter :
we have in general recommended all trials of

44 Practical Education.

address and dexterity, but games of chance
we thjnk should be avoided, as they tend to
give a taste for gambhng ; a passion which has
been the ruin of so many young men of promis-
ing talents, of so many once liappy families,
that every parent will think it well worth his
while to attend to the smallest circumstances in
education, which can prevent its seizing hold
<rfthe minds of his children.

In children, as in men, a taste for gaming
arises from the want of better occupation, or of
proper emotion to relieve them from the pains
and penalties of idleness ; both the vain and
indolent are prone to this taste from different
causes. The idea of personal merit is insen-
sibly connected with what is cMqA good luck ;
and before avarice absorbs every other feeling,
vanity forms no inconsiderable part of the charm
which fixes such numbers to the gaming-table.
Indolent persons are fond of games of chance,
because they feel themselves roused agreeably
from their habitual state of apathy, or because
they perceive, that at these contests, without
any mental exertion, they are equal, perhaps
superior, to their competitors,

Happy they who have early been inspired
with a taste for science and literature! they will
have a constant succession of agreeable ideas,
they will find endless variety in the commonest

Toys. 45

objects which surround them, and feeling that
every day of their hves they have sufficient
amusement, they will require no extraordinary
excitations, no holiday pleasures. They who
have learnt from their own experience a just
confidence in their own powers, they who have
tasted the delights of well-earned praise, will
not lightly trust to chance for the increase of
self-approbation ; nor will they pursue with too
much eagerness the precarious triumphs of
fortune, who know that in their usual pursuits
it is in their own power to command success
proportioned to their exertions. Perhaps it may
be thought, that we should have deferred our
eulogium upon literature till we came to speak
of Tasks ; but if there usually appears but little
connexion in a child's mind between books and
toys, this must be attributed to his having had bad
books and bad toys. In the hands of a judicious
instructor no means are too small to be useful ;
every thing is made conducive to his purposes,
and instead of useless baubles, his pupils will be
provided with playthings which may instruct,
and with occupations which may at once amuse
and improve the understanding.

It would be superfluous to give a greater va-
riety of instances of the sorts of amusements
which are advantageous ; we fear that we have
already given too many, and that we have ha-

46 Practical Education,

zarded some observations which will be thought
too prompous for a chapter upon Toys. We
intended to have added to this chapter an in-
ventory of the present most fashionable articles
in our toy-shops, and a list of the new assortment,
to speak in the true style of an advertisement ;
but we are obliged to defer this for the present;
upon a future occasion \te shall submit it to
the judgment of the pubHc. A revolution
even in toy-shops should not be attempted,
unless there appear a moral certainty that we
both may and can change for the better. The
danger of doing too much in education is
greater even than the danger of doing too little.
As the merchants in France answered to Colbert,
when he desired to know " how he could best assist
" them," children might perhaps reply to those
who are most officious to amuse them, *' Leave us
•^ to ourselves."

Tasks. 4fJ

CHAPTER IL

Tash.

^^ tVhY don't you get your task, instead of
'^ playing with your playthings from morning to
" night? You are grown too old now to do
" nothing but play. It is high time you should
*^ learn to read and write, for you cannot be a
*' child all your life, child ! so go and fetch your
" book^ and learn your task'*

This angry apostrophe is probably addressed
to a child, at the moment when he is intent
upon some agreeable occupation, which is now
to be stigmatized with the name of play. Why
that word should all at once change its mean-
ing ; why that should now be a crime, which
was formerly a virtue ; why he, who had so
often been desired to go and play, should now
be reviled for his obedience ; the young casuist
is unable-to discover. He hears that he is no
longer a child : this he is willing to believe ;
but the consequence is alarming; of the new
duties incumbent upon his situation he has yet

48 - Practical Education.

but a confused idea. In his manly character
he is not yet thoroughly perfect ; his pride
would make him despise every thing that is
childish, but no change has yet been wrought
in the inward man, and his old tastes and new
ambition are at variance. Whether to learn
to read' be a dreadful thing or not, is a question
he cannot immediately solve ; but if his rea-
soning faculty be suspended, there is yet a
power secretly working within him, by which
he will involuntarily be governed. This power
is the power of association : of its laws he is
probably not more ignorant than his tutor ; nor
is he aware that whatever word or idea comes
into his mind with any species of pain, will
return, whenever it is recalled to his memory,
with the same feelings. The word Task, the
first time he hears it, is an unmeaning word,
but it ceases to be indifferent to him the
moment he hears it pronounced in a terrible
voice ; " Learn your task," and ^' Fetch your
" book," recur to his recollection with indis-
tinct feelings of pain; and hence, without far-
ther consideration, he will be disposed to dislike
both books and tasks : but his feehngs are the
last things to be considered upon this occasion ;
the immediate business is to teach him to read.
A new era in his life now commences. The
age of learning begins, and begins in sorrow ;

Tasks. 49

the consequences of a bad beginning are pro-
verbially ominous ; but no omens can avert his
fate, no omens can deter his tutor from the un-
dertaking ; the appointed moment is come ; the
boy is four years old, and he must learn to
read. Some people, struck with a panic fear,
lest their children should never learn to read
and write, think that they cannot be in too
great a hurry to teach them. Spelling books,
grammars, dictionaries, rods, and masters, are
collected ; nothing is to be heard of in the
house but tasks, nothing is to be seen but tears.

*^ No tears ! no tasks ! no masters ! nothing
" upon compulsion ! " say the opposite party in
education. *^ Children must be left entirely at
'* liberty ; they will learn every thing better than
*' you can teach them ; their memory must
" not be overloaded with trash; their reason
'^ must be left to grow."

Their reason will never grow, unless it be
exercised, is the reply ; their memory must be
stored whilst they are young, because in youth
the memory is most tenacious. ' If you leave
them at liberty for ever, they will never learn
to spell, they will never learn Latin, they will
never get through Latin grammar, yet they
must learn Latin grammar, and a number of
other disagreeable things, therefore we must
give them tasks and task-masters.

VOL.1. E

50 Practical Education.

In all these assertions perhaps we shall find a
mixture of truth and error, therefore we had
better be governed by neither party, but listen
to both, and examine arguments unawed by
authority. And first as to the panic fear, which,
though no argument, is a most powerful mo-
tive. We see but few examples of children so
extremely stupid as not to have been able to
learn to read and write between the years of
three and thirteen ; but we see many whose
temper and whose understanding have been ma-
terially injured by premature, or injudicious
instruction ; we see many who are disgusted
perhaps irrecoverably with literature, whilst
they are fluently reading books which they can-
not comprehend, or learning words by rote, to
which they affix no ideas. It is scarcely worth
while to speak of the vain ambition of those,
who long to have it said that their children
. read sooner than those of their neighbours ; for
supposing their utmost wish to be gratified,
that their son could read before the age when
children commonly articulate, still the triumph
must be of short duration, the fame confined to
a small circle of " foes and friends," and proba-
bly in a few years the memory of the phseno-
menon would remain only with his doting
grandmother. Surely it is the use which chil-
dren make of their acquirements, which is of
consequence, not the possessing them a few years

Tasks. 51

sooner or later. A man, who during bis whole
life could never write any thing that was worth
reading, would find it but poor consolation fot
himseli^ his friends, or the public to reflect,
that he had been in joining-hand before he was
five years old.

As it is usually managed, it is a dreadful task
indeed to learn, and if possible a more dreadful
task to teach to read : with the help of counters,
and coaxing, and gingerbread, or by dint of
reiterated pain and terror, the names of the four
and twenty letters of the alphabet are perhaps
in the course of some weeks firmly fixed in the
pupil's memory. So much the worse ; all these
names will disturb him if he have common sense,
and at every step must stop his progress. To
begin with the vowels ; each of these have se-
veral different sounds, and consequently ought
to have several names, or different signs to dis-
tinguish them in different circumstances. In
the first lesson of the spelling-book the child
begins with a-b makes ab ; b-a makes ba.
The inference, if any general inference can be
drawn from this lesson, is, that when a comes
before b it has one sound, and after b it has ano-
ther sound ; but this is contradicted by and by,
and it appears that a after b has various sounds,
as in ball, in bat, in bare. The letter i mjire
is u as we call it in the alphabet, but in Jir it

E 1

52 Practical Educatmi.

is changed^ in pin it is changed again ; so
that the child being ordered to affix to the same
sign a variety of sounds^ and names, and not
knowing in what circumstances to obey, and in
what to disregard the contradictory injunctions
imposed upon him, he pronounces sounds at
hazard, and adheres positively to the last ruled
case, or maintains an apparently sullen, or truly
philosophic and sceptical silence. Must e in
peuy and em where ^ and e mher, and e mfear,
all be called e alike ? The child is patted on the
head for reading z/ as it ought to be pronounced
in future ; but if remembering this encourage-
ment> the pupil should venture to pronounce u
in gun and bun in the same manner^ he will
inevitably be disgraced. Pain and shame impress
precepts upon the mind, the child therefore is
intent upon remembering the new sound of u in
bun ; but when he comes to busy^ and burial^ and
prudence y his last precedent will lead him fatally
astray, and he will again be called dunce, O in
the exclamation Oh ! is happily called by its al-
phabetical name, but in to we can hardly know
it again, arid in morning and wonder it has a third
and a fourth additional sound. The amphibious
letter, y, which is either a vowel or a consonant,
has one sound in one character, and two sounds
in the other ; as a consonant, it is pronounced as
in yesterday ; in try, it is sounded as i ; in any,

Tasks. b2>

and in the termination of many other words, it is
sounded like e. Must a child know all this
by intuition, or must it be whipt into him ?
But he must know a great deal more before he
can read the most common words: what length
of time should we allow him for learning when
c is to be sounded like k, and when like s ?
apd how much longer time shall we add for
learning when s shall be pronounced sh, as in
sure, or z^ as in has ; the sound of which last
letter z he cannot by any conjuration obtain from
the name zad, the only name by which he has
been taught to call it ? How much time shall
we allow a patient tutor for teaching a docile
pupil when g is to be sounded soft, and when
hard. There are many carefully worded rules
in the spelling-books, specifying before what
letters, and in what situations, g shall vary in
sound, but unfortunately these rules are difficult
to be learned by heart, and still more difficult
to understand. These laws, however positive,
are not found to be of universal application, or at
least a child has not always wit or time to apply
them upon the spur of the occasion. In coming
to the words good gentleman, get an ingenious
grammar y he may be puzzled by the nice distinc-
tions he is to make in pronunciation in cases
apparently similar : but he has not yet become
acquainted with all the powers of this privileged

1

"54 Practical Education.

letter ; in company with h it assumes the cha-
racter of/, as in tough : the next time he meets it
perhaps in the same company, in the same place,
and as nearly as possible in the same circumstan-
ces, as in the word though ; but now ^ is to become
a silent letter and is to pass incognito, and the
child would commit an unpardonable error if
he claimed the incognito as his late acquaintance
jT. Still all these are slight difficulties ; a mo-
ment's reflection must convince us, that by
teaching the common names of every consonant
in the alpahabet, we prepare a child for misery
when he begins to spell or read. A consonant,
as saith the spelling-book, is a letter which cannot
be pronounced without a vowel before or after it;
for this reason JB is called he, and L, el ; but
why the vowel should come first in the one case,
or last in the second, we are not informed ; nor are
we told why the names of some letters have no
resemblance whatever to their sounds, either with
a vowel before or after them. Suppose that
after having learned the alphabet, a child was to
attempt to read the words
>f' Here is some apple pye,

he wolud pronounce the letters thus,

Acheare ies esoeme apepeele pewie.
With this pronunciation the child could never
decipher these simple words. It will be an-
swered perhaps, that no child is expected to

Tasks. 55

read as soon as he has learnt his alphabet: a
long initiation of monosyllabic, dissyllabic, tris-
syllabic, and polysyllabic words is previously
to be submitted to, nor after this inauguration
are the novices capable of performing v^ith pro-
priety the ceremony of reading whole words and
sentences. By a different method of teaching,
all this waste of labour and of time, all this con*
fusion of rules and exceptions, and all the conse-
quent confusion in the understanding of the pupil,
may be avoided.

In teaching a child to read, every letter should
have a precise single sound annexed to its figure ;
this should never vary. Where two consonants
are joined together, so as to have but one sound,
as ph, sh, &c. the two letters should be coupled
together by a distinct invariable mark. Letters
that are silent should be marked in such a man-
ner as to point out to the child that they are not
to be sounded. Upon these simple rules our
method of teaching to read has been founded.
The signs or marks, by which these distinctions
are to be effected, are arbitrary, and may be va-
ried as the teacher chooses ; the addition of a
single point above or below the common letters
is sufficient to distinguish the different sounds
that are given to the same letter^ and a mark un-
derneath such letters as are to be omitted is the
only apparatus necessary. These marks were

4

56 Practical Education.

employed by the author in 1776, before he had
seen Sheridan's or any similar dictionary ; he has
found that they do not confuse children as much
as figures, because when dots are used to dis-
tinguish sounds, there is only a change of place,
and no change of form : but any person that
chooses it may substitute figures instead of dots.
It should, however, be remembered^ that children
must learn to distinguish the figures before they
can be useful in discriminating the words.

All these sounds, and each of the characters
which denote them, should be distinctly known
by a child before we begin to teach him to read.
And here at the first step we must entreat the
teacher to have patience to ?i\ firmly in her
mind ; we say her mind, because we address our-
selves to mothers ; that it is immaterial whether
a child learns this alphabet in six weeks or in six
months ; at all events, let it not be inculcated
with restraint, or made tiresome, lest it should
retard the whole future progress ©f the pupil.
We do not mean to recommend the custom of
teaching in play, but surely a cheerful counte-
nance is not incompatible with application.

The three sounds of the letter (a) should first
be taught; they may be learned by the dullest
child in a week, if the letters are shown to him
for a minute or two twice a day ; proper mo*
ments should be chosen when the child is not

\^oilJPapes6-

a /ate*
a fat

a fall

asm

ntete
?net
her

e where

A^OWE L S.

as ill as in

1 fine o throne

1 m

i bird
\ maehihe

on

Im'c

move

asm
u pure

busy
sun
fiiU

as m

^o^tudedas^^

D IPTH OXG S
as in as in as in

asm

ea oce^in
ew fen

la filial
ie daniel
ie 7?iinion

ei

voice

©n

fiyitnd

e^

now

ni lamjuid

J^

xna
za

Consonants.
l)a ca da fa g-a lia ja ta la
na pa qna ra sa ta ra wa ya

Different Sounds of certain Confonants andDoiible Confonants.

^^Q^jadedas^;^ as in
c cap I g* (/of

c tY^' ^i" 'T^?^^

ek cfuld I B^' ^'''{^

ek machine

asm

asm

asm

mg /5^/>?^

s has

ti christian

le .^^/^•

^ she

tifin natiort

1^ ^^yvf'

sioH riision

1^ jr^

pk physick

A //^^'

ee^ torn/ A

Mark of Okliteration.
(\)T/us mark under a Zeffer s/ieivs t/iat it is not to be pronoimced ,
as eig-M in whicfi i g-li ^//v not sounded.

FefenaxTis coldtnt the days are Ion*;-; there is a Yellow
croens coming' iip

Zcruicit.J^N/ifi'ithedJttn.l^i-^ilS.bvJ.JohTiseTt.Sfrintli^C/utrcfilarJ.

Tasks, 57

intent upon any thing else, when other children
have appeared to be amused with reading, when
the pupil himself appears anxious to be . in-
structed. As soon as he is acquainted with the
sounds of (a), and with their distinguishing
marks, each of these sounds should be formed
into syllables, with each of the consonants ; but
we should never name the consonants by their
usual names ; if it be required to point them out
by sounds, let them resemble the real sounds or
powers of the consonants : but in fact it will ne-
ver be necessary to name the consonants sepa-
rately, till their powers in combination with the
different vowels be distinctly acquired. It will
then be time enough to teach the common names
of the letters. To a person unacquainted with
the principles upon which this mode of teaching
is founded, it must appear strange that a child
should be able to read before he knows the names
of his letters ; but it has been ascertained, that
the names of the letters are an incumbrance in
teaching a child to read.

In the quotation from Mrs. Barbauld, at the
bottom of the alphabetical tables, there is a stroke
between the letters b and r in February, and be-
tween t and h in there, to show that these let-
ters are to be sounded together, so as to make
one sound. The same is to be observed as to
{ng) in the word long^ and also as to the sylla-

58 Practical Education,

ble ing, which in the table No. 4, cohimn 4, is
directed to be taught as one sound. The mark
(') of obhteration is put under (y) in the word
daysy under e final in there, and also under one
of the Vs and the (w) in yellow^ to show that
these letters are not to be pronounced. The ex-
ceptions to this scheme of articulation are very
few ; such as occur are marked with the number
employed in Walker's dictionary, to denote the
exception, to which excellent work the teacher
will of course refer.

Parents, at the first sight of this new alphabet,
will perhaps tremble lest they should be obliged
to learn the whole of it before they begin to teach
their children : but they may calm their appre-
hensions, for they need only point out the letters
in succession to the child, and sound them as
they are sounded in the words annexed to the
letters in the table, and the child will soon by
repetition render the marks of the respective
letters familiar to the teacher. We have never
found any body complain of difficulty, who has
gone on from letter to letter along with the child
who was taught.

As soon as our pupil knows the different sounds
of (a) combined in succession with all the con-
sonants, we may teach him the rest of the vow-
els joined with all the consonants, which will be
a short and easy work. Our readers need not be

Tasks, 59

alarmed at the apparent slowness of this method:
six months, at the rate of four or five minutes
each day, will render all these combinations
perfectly familiar. One of Mrs. Barbauld's les-
sons for young children, carefully marked in the
same manner as the alphabet, should, when they
are well acquainted with the sounds of each of
the vowels combined with each of the consonants,
be put into our pupil's hands.*

The sound of three or four letters togcether
will immediately become familiar to him, and
when any of the less common sounds of the
vowels, such as are contained in the second
table, and the terminating sounds, tion, ly, &c.
occur, they should be read to the child, and
should be added to what he has got by rote from
time to time. When all these marks and their
corresponding sounds are learnt, the primer
should be abandoned, and from that time the
child will be able to read slowly the most diffi-
cult words in the language. We must observe,
that the mark of obliteration is of the greatest
service ; it is a clue to the whole labyrinth of in-
tricate and uncouth orthography. The word
though^ by the obliteration of three letters, may
be as easily read as the or that.

It should be observed that all people, before
they can read fluently, have acquired a know-

* Some of these lessons, and others by the authors, will
shortly be printed, and marked according to this method.

60 Fractical Education,

ledge of the general appearance of most of the
words in the language, independently of the
syllables of which they are composed. Seven
children in the author's family were taught to
read in this manner^ and three in the common
method ; the difference of time, labour, and
sorrow, between the two modes of learning, ap-
peared so clearly, that we can speak with confi-
dence upon the subject. We think that nine-
tenths of the labour and disgust of learning to read
may be saved by this method, and that instead
of frowns and tears, the usual harbingers of
learning, cheerfulness and smiles may initiate
willing pupils in the most difficult of all human
attainments.

Since this was written, four children have
been taught to read in the author s family, and
the result of his increased experience is due to
the public.

One of these children was taught to read, so
as to be able to make out and pronounce any
word in theEnglish or Latin languages in the short
space of eight hours^ — not in eight successive
hours — but at the rate of six or seven minutes
per day. This had been done with so much
ease to the child, who was about four years old,
that she soon took more pleasure in reading than
could well be imagined : though a child of un-
common vivacity, she retired when she could to
a corner to read ; and before she was seven years

Tasks. (jl

old, she had read more books, and had acquired
more words than furnish the heads of many at
fourteen ; but^ her understanding had not kept
pace with her vocabulary, and had not this been
discovered in time, the consequences might have
been highly injurious. Another child was taught
to read by her mother, more in the common way,
using points to distinguish the vowels, and not
with that anxiety and precipitation which are so
common. This child showed more powers of
thought at seven years old than her sister. And
now (1810) they are upon a par, taking their
respective ages into consideration. This detail
is entered into from a desire to avoid all undue
predilection for a favourite system. Any me-
thod of teaching to read and spell is good, that
does not fatigue and disgust the pupil. At the
same time the author is thoroughly convinced
that the common mode is operose and defective ;
and that in large schools the business might be
effectually got oyer in one-tenth part of the time
that is required at present. The only difficulty
in the universal adoption of a " rational primer,"
is to teach the teachers; and yet this might be
done in half an hour. Haifa century hence, the
common method will probably be exploded. In
all cases the author recommends the mark of ob-
literation.

The step from reading with these marks, to

62 Practical Education.

reading without them, will be found Very easy.
Nothing more is necessary, than to give children
the same books without marks, which they can
read fluently with them.

Spelling comes next to reading. New trials
for the temper; new perils for the understand-
ing ; positive rules and arbitrary exceptions ;
endless examples and contradictions ; till at
length, out of all patience with the stupid doci-
lity of his pupil, the tutor perceives the absolute
necessity of making him get by heart with all
convenient speed every word in the language.
The formidable columns rise in dread succession.
Months and years are devoted to the undertak-
ing ; but after going through a whole spelling-
book, perhaps a whole dictionary, till we come
triumphantly to spell Zeugma, we have forgotten
how to spell Abbot, and we must begin again
-with Abasement. Merely the learning to spell
so many unconnected words without any assist-
ance from reason or analogy, is nothing com-
pared with the difficulty of learning the expla-
nation of them by rote, and the still greater
difficulty of understanding the meaning of the
explanation. When a child has got by rote

" Midnight, the depth of night;"
" Metaphysics, the science which treats of im-

'^ material beings, and of forms in general ab-

" stracted from matter.

Tasks, 63

has he acquired any very distinct ideas either of
midnight or of metaphysics? If a boy had eaten
rice pudding till he fancied himself tolerably
well acquainted with rice, would he find his
knowledge much improved by learning from his
spelling-bbok the words

*^ Rice, a foreign esculent grain ? "

yet we are surprised to discover, that men have
so few accurate ideas, and that so many learned
disputes originate in a confused or improper use
of words.

" All this is very true," says a candid school-
master ; " we see the evil, but we cannot new-
*^ model the language, or write a perfect philo-
" sophical dictionary ; and, in the meantime, we
*^ are bound to teach children to spell, which we
" do with the less reluctance, because, though
" we allow that it is an arduous task, we have
^' found from experience that it can be accom-
" plished, and that the understandings of many
*' of our pupils survive all the perils to which
*^ you think them exposed during the opera-
'' tion."

Their understandings may, and do survive the
operation ; but why should they be put in un-
necessary danger ? and why should we early dis-
gust children with literature by the pain and
difficulty of their first, lessons? We are con-

64 Practical Education.

vinced that the business of learning to spell is
made much more laborious to children than it
need to be : it may be useful to give them five
or six words every day to learn by heart/ but
more only loads their memory ; and we should
at first select words of which they know the
meaning, and which occur most frequently in
reading or conversation. The alphabetical list
of words in a spelling-book contains many which
are not in common use, and the pupil forgets
these as fast as he learns them. We have found
it entertaining to children, to ask them to spell
any short sentence as it has been accidentally
spoken. " Put this book on that table." Ask
a child how he would spell those words if he
were obliged to write them down, and you in-
troduce into his mind the idea that he must
learn to spell, before he can make his words and
thoughts understood in writing. It is a good
way to make children write down a few words
of their own selection every day, and correct the
spelling; and also after they have been reading,
whilst the words are yet fresh in their memory,
we may ask them to spell some of the words
which they have just seen ; by these means, and
by repeating at different times in the day those
words which are most frequently wanted, his
vocabulary will be pretty well stocked without
its having cost him many tears. We should ob-

'Tasks. Qd

serve^ that children learn to spell more by the
eye than by the ear, and that the more they read
and write, the more hkely they will be to re-
member the combination of letters in words
which they have continually before their eyes,
or which they feel it necessary to represent to
others. When young people begin to write,
they first feel the use of spelling, and it is then
that they will learn it with most ease and preci-
sion. Then the greatest care should be taken
to look over their writing, and to make them
correct every word in which they have made a
mistake; because bad habits of spelling, once
contracted; can scarcely be cured : the under-
standing has nothing to do with the business ;
and when the memory is puzzled between the
rules of spelling right, and the habits of spelling
wrong, it becomes a misfortune to the pupil to
write even a common letter. The shame which
is annexed to bad spellirig excites young people's
attention, as soon as they are able to understand
that it is considered as a mark of ignorance and
ill-breeding. We have often observed, that chil-
dren listen with anxiety to the remarks that are
made upon this subject in their presence, espe-
cially when the letters or notes of groxvn-up peo-
ple are criticised.

Some time ago, a lady, who was reading a
newspaper, met with a story of an ignorant ma-

/ VOL. I. F

66 Practical Education.

gistrate, who gave for his toast at a public din-
ner *• the two Ks," for the King and Constitu-
tion. " How very much ashamed the man must
^' have felt, when all the people laughed at him
*^ for his mistake ! they must ail have seen that
" he did not know how to spell ; and what a
" disgrace for a magistrate too !" said a boy who
heard the anecdote. It made a serious impres-
sion upon him ; a iew months afterwards, he was
employed by his father in an occupation which
was extremely agreeable to him, but in which he
continually felt the necessity of spelling cor-
rectly. He was employed to send messages by
a telegraph ; these inessages he was obliged to
write down hastily in little journals kept for the
purj3ose ; and as these %vere seen by several
people when the business of the day came to be
reviewed, the boy had a considerable motive for
orthographical exactness. He became extreme-
ly desirous to teach himself, and consequently
his success was from that moment certain. As
to the rest, we refer to Lady Carlisle's compre-
hensive maxim, "* Spell well if you canJ'

It is undoubtedly of consequence to teach the
-rudiments of literary education early, to get over
the first difficulties of reading, writing, and spell-
ing; but much of the anxiety, and bustle, and
labour of teaching these things may be advan-
tageously spared. If more attention were turned

Tasks. 67

to the general cultivation of the understanding,
and if more pains were taken to make literature
agreeable to children, it would be found less dif-
ficult to excite them to mental exertion, or to
induce the habits of persevering apphcation.

When we speak of rendering literature agree-
able to children, and of the danger of associating
pain with the sight of a book, or with the sound
of the word task, we should at the same time
avoid the error of those who in their first lessons
accustom their pupils to so much amusement,
that they cannot help afterwards feeling dis-
gusted with the sobriety of instruction. It has
been the fashion of late to attempt teaching every
thing to children in play, and ingenious people
have contrived to insinuate much useful know-
ledge, without betraying the design to instruct ;
but this system cannot be pursued beyond
certain bounds, without many inconveniencies.
The habit of being amused not only increases
the desire for amusement, but it lessens even the
relish for pleasure ; so that the mind becomes
passive and indoleat, and a course of perpetually
increasing stimulus is necessary to awaken at"
tention. When dissipated habits are acquired,
the pupil loses power over his own mind, and,
instead of vigorous voluntary exertion, which he
should be able to command, he shows that way-
ward imbecility, which can think successfully

F 2

6b Practical Education.

only by fits and starts : this paralytic state of
mind has been found to be one of the greatest
calamities attendant on what is called genius ;
and injudicious education creates or increases
this disease. Let us not therefore humour chil-
dren in this capricious temper, especially if they
have quick abilities : let us give rewards pro-
portioned to their exertions with uniform jus-
tice, but let us not grant bounties in educa-
tion, which, however they may appear to suc-
ceed in effecting partial and temporary purposes,
are not calculated to ensure any consequences
permanently beneficial. The truth is, that use-
ful knowledge cannot be obtained without la-
bour, that attention long continued is labori-
ous, but that without this labour nothing
excellent can be accomplished. Excite a child
to attend in earnest for a short time, his mind
will be less fatigued, and his understanding
will be more improved, than if he had exerted
but half the energy twice as long : the degree
of pain which he may have felt will be amply
and properly compensated by his success; this
will not be an arbitrary variable reward, but one
within his own power, and that can be ascer-
tained by his own feelings. Here is no deceit
practised, no illusion ; the same course of con-
diict may be regularly pursued through the
whqle of his education, and his confidence in

Tasks. 69

his tutor will progressively increase. On the
contrary, if, to entice him to enter the paths of
knowledge, we strew them with flowers, hoW
will he feel when he must force his way through
thorns and briars ?

There is a material difference between teach-
ing children in play, and making learning a task:
in the one case we associate factitious pleasure,
in the other factitious pain, with the object:
both produce pernicious effects upon the tem-
per, and retard the natural progress of the under-
standing. The advocates in favour of ^* scho-
^^ lastic badinage " have urged, that it excites
an interest ill the minds of children, similar to
that which makes them endure a considerable
degree of labour in the pursuit of their amuse-
ments. Children, it is said, work hard at play,
therefore we should let them play at work.
Would not this produce effects the very reverse
of what we desire ? The whole question must
at last depend upon the meaning of the word
play : if by play be meant every thing that is
not usually called a task, then undoubtedly
much may be learned at play ; if, on the con-
trary, we mean by the expression to describe
that state of fidgetting idleness, or of boisterous
activity, in which the intellectual powers are tor-
pid, or stunned with unmeaning noise, the asser-
tion contradicts itself. At play so defined, children
1

70 Practical Education.

can learn nothing but bodily activity ; it is cer-
tainly true, that when children are interested
about any thing, whether it be about what we
call a trifle, or a matter of consequence, they
will exert themselves in order to succeed ; but
from the moment the attention is fixed, no mat-
ter on what, children are no longer at idle play,
they are at active work.

S , a little boy of nine years old, was

standing without any book in his hand, and
seemingly idle ; he was amusing himself with
looking at tvhat he called a rainbow upon the

floor : he begged his sister M to look at it ;

then he said he wondered what oould make it ;
how it came there. The sun shone bright
through the window ; the bo}'- moved several
things in the room, so as to place them some-
times between the light and the colours which
he saw upon the floor, and sometimes in a cor-
ner of the room where the sun did not shine.
As he moved the things he said, *^ This is not
" it ;" « Nor this ;" " This hasn't any thing to do
" with it." At last he found that when he moved
a tumbler of water out of the place where it
stood, his rainbow vanished. Some violets were

in the tumbler ; S thought they might be

the cause of the colours which he saw upon the
floor, or, as he expressed it, " Perhaps these
" may be the thing." He took the violets out of

Tasks. 71

the water ; the colours remained upon the floor.
He then thought that *' it might be the water.**
He emptied the glass ; the colours remained, but

they were fainter. S immediately observed,

that it was the water and glass together that
made the rainbow. " But/' said he, " there is
" no glass in the sky, yet there is a rainbow, so
*^ that I think the water alone would do, if we
*^ could but hold it together without the glass. Oh,
" I know how I can manage !'* He poured the
water slowly out of the tumbler into a bason,
which he placed where the sun shone, and he saw
the colours on the floor twinkling behind the
water as it fell : this delighted him much ; but
he asked why it would not do when the sun did
not shine. The sun went behind a cloud whilst
he was trying his experiments : " Ther^ was
" light," said he, " though there was no sun-
" shine." He then said he thought that the dif-
ferent thickness of the glass was the cause of
the variety of colours : afterwards he said, he
thought that the clearness or muddiness of the
different drops of water was the cause of the
different colours.

A rigid preceptor, who thinks that every boy
must be idle who has not a Latin book con-
stantly in his hand, would perhaps have repri-
manded S for wasting his time at play^ and

would have summoned him from his rainbow to

7'2 Practical Education.

his task ; but it is very obvious to any person
free from prejudices, that this child was not idle
whilst he was meditating upon the rainbow on
the floor ; his attention was fixed ; he was rea-
soning, he was trying experiments. We may
call this play if we please, and we may say that
Descartes was at play, when he first verified Anto-
nio de Dominis, bishop of Spalatro's, treatise of
the rainbow, by an experiment with a glass
globe ;=^ and we may say that Buffon was idle,
when his pleased attention was first caught with
a landscape of green shadows, when one evening
at sunset he first observed that the shadows of
trees which fell upon a white wall were green,
when he was first delighted with the exact re-
presentation of a green arbour, which seemed as
if it had been newly painted on the wall. Cer-
tainly the boy with his rainbow on the floor
was as much amused as the philosopher with his
coloured shadows ; and, however high sounding
the name of Antonio de Dominis, bishop of
Spalatro, may be, it does not alter the business in
the least ; he could have exerted only liis ut-
most attention upon the theory of the rainbow,
and this child did the same. We do not mean to
compare the powers of reasoning, or the abilities,
of the child and the philosopher ; we would only

* See Priestley's History of Vision, vol. i. p. 51.

Tasks: 73

show that the same species of attention was ex-
erted by both.

To fix the attention of children, or, in other
words, to interest them about those subjects to
which we wish them to apply, must be our first
object in the early cultivation of tlie understand-
ing. This we shall not find a difficult under-
taking if we have no false associations, no pain-
ful recollections to contend with. We can
connect any species of knowledge with those
occupations which are immediately agreeable to
young people : for instance, if a child is build-
ing a house, we may take that opportunity to
teach him how bricks are made, how the arches
over doors and windows are made, the nature of
the keystone and hutments of an arch, the
manner in which all the different parts of the
roof of a house are put together, &c. : whilst he
is learning all this, he is eagerly and seriously
attentive, and we educate his understanding in
the best possible method ; but if, mistaking the
application of the principle, that literature
should be made agreeable to children, we should
entice a child to learn his letters by a promise of
a gilt coach, or by telling him that he would be
the cleverest boy in the world if he could but
learn the letter A^ we use false and foolish
motives ; we may possibly by such means effect
the immediate purpose, but we shall assuredly

74 Practical Education.

have reason to repent of such imprudent deceit
If the child reasons at all, he will be content
after his first lesson with being " the cleverest
" boy in the world," and he will not on a future
occasion hazard his fame, having much to lose,
and nothing to gain ; at all events he is now
master of a gilt coach, and some new and larger
reward must be proffered to excite his industry.
Beside the disadvantage of early exhausting our
stock of incitements, it is dangerous to humour
pupils with a variety of objects by way of
relieving their attention : the pleasure of thinks
ing^ and much of the profit, must frequently
depend upon our preserving the greatest possible
connexion between our ideas ; those who allow
themselves to start from one object to another
acquire such dissipated habits of mind, that
they cannot, without extreme difficulty and re-
luctance, follow any connected train of thought.
You cannot teach those who will not follow tbe
chain of your reasons ; upon the connexion of
our ideas^ useful memory and reasoning must
depend. We will give an instance : arithemtic
is one of the first things that we attempt to teach
children. In the following dialogue, which
passed between a boy of five years old and bis
father, we may observe that till the child followed
his father's train of ideas he could not be
taught.

Tasks. 75

Father. S , how many can you take from

one ?

S . None.

Father. None ! Think i can you take nothing
from orre ?

#S— — . None, except that one.

Father. Except ! Then you can take one
from one ?

S . Yes, that owe.

Father. How many then can you take from
one?

S . One.

Father, Very true ; but now, can you take
two from one ?

S . Yes, if they were figures I could rub

them out.

Father. Yes, you could ; but now we will
not talk of figures, we will talk of things.
There may be one horse or two horses^ or one
man or two men.^

S . Ye^, or one coat or two coats.

Father. Yes, or one thing or two things, no
matter what they are. Now, could you take
two things from one thing ?

S . Yes, if there were three things I could

take away two things and leave one.

His Father took up a cake from the tea-table.

Father* Could I take two cakes from this one
cake ?

76 Practical Education.

You could take two pieces.

His Father divided the cake into halves, and
held up each half so that the child might dis-
tinctly see them.

Father. What would you call these two
pieces ?

S . Two cakes.

Father, No, not two cakes.

S -. Two biscuits.

His Father holding up a whole biscuit. What
is this ?

S . A thing to eat.

Father. Yes, but what would you call it ?

S . A biscuit.

His Father broke it into halves, and showed
one half.

Father. What would you call this ?

S was silent, and his sister was applied

to, who answered, " Half a biscuit."

Father. Very well ; that's all at present.

The father prudently stopped here, that he
might not confuse his pupil's understanding.
Many people would think this child very
stupid, but it will appear in other parts of this
book that he was far from being a dull child :'
the fault here was in the teacher and not in the
pupil. Those only who have attempted to teach
children can conceive how extremely difficult it
is to fix their attention or to make them seize the

Tasks. 77

connexion of ideas, which it appears to us almost
impossible to miss.

Children are well occupied in examining
external objects, but they must also attend to
words as well as things : one of the great
difficulties in early instruction arises from the
want of words : the pupil very often has
acquired the necessary ideas, but they are not
associated ia his mind with the words which
his tutor uses : these words are then to him
mere sounds, which suggest no correspondent
thoughts. Words, as M. Condillac well ob-
serves,'* are essential to our acquisition of
knowledge ; they are the medium through
which one set of beings can convey the result
of their experiments and observations to ano-
ther; they are in all mental processes the
algebraic signs which assist us in solving the
most difficult problems. What agony does a
foreigner, knowing himself to be a man of sense,
appear to suffer, when for want of language, he
cannot in conversation communicate his know-
ledge, explain his reasons, enforce his arguments,
or make his wit intelligible? in vain he has re-
course to the language of action. The language
of action, or as Bacon calls it of transitory hiero-
glyphic, is expressive, but inadequate. As new

* " Art de PeBser."

78 Practical Education,

ideas are collected in the mind, new signs are
wanted, and the progress of the understanding
would he early and fatally innpeded by the want
of language. M. de la Condamine tells us, that
there is a nation who have no sign to express
the number three, but ih\^vfov^, poellar tar r or in-
courac. These people having begun, as Con-
dillac observes, in such an incommodious man-
ner, it is not surprising that they have not
advanced farther in their knowledge of arith-
metic: they have got no farther than the number
three ; their knowledge of arithmetic stops for
ever at poellartarrorincoarac. But even this
cumbersome sign is better than none. Those
who have the misfortune to be born deaf and
dumb continue for ever in intellectual imbecility.
There is an account in the Memoires de TAca-
dcmie Royale, p. xxii — xviii. 1703, of a young
man born deaf and dumb,* who recovered his
hearing at the age of four and twenty, and who,
after employing himself in repeating low to
himself the words which he heard others pro-
nounce, at length broke silence in company, and
declared that he could talk. His conversation
was but imperfect ; he was examined by several
able theologians, who chiefly questioned him

• See Condillac's Art de Penser. In the chapter " on the
use of signs '* this >pung man is mentioned.

Tanks. ?9

<^n his ideas of God, the soul, and the raorahty
or immorality of actions. It appeared that he
liad not thought upon any of these subjects ; he
did not distinctly know what was meant by
death, and he never thought of it. He seemed
to pass a merely animal life, occupied with
sensible, present objects, and with the few ideas
which he received by his sense of sight ; nor
did he seem to have gained as much knowledge
as he might have done by the comparison of
these ideas ; yet it is said that he did not appear
naturally deficient in understanding.

Peter, the wild boy, v;ho is mentioned in Lord
Montboddu's Origin of Language,* had all his
senses in remarkable perfection. He lived at a
farm-house within half a mile of us in Hertford-
shire for some years, and we had frequent op-
portunities of trying experiments upon him.
He could articulate imperfectly a few words, in
particular. King George, which words he always
accompanied with an imitation of the bells,
which rang at the coronation of George the Se-
cond ; he could in a rude manner imitate two
or three common tunes, but without words.
Though his head, as Mr. Wedgewood and many
others had remarked, resembled that of Socrates,
he was an idiot : he had acquired a few auto-
matic habits of rationality and industry, but he
* Vol. ii.

80 Practical Education^

could never be made to work at any continued
occupation ; he would shut the door of the farm-
yard five hundred times a day, but he would
not reap or make hay. Drawing water from a
neighbouring river was the only domestic busi-
ness which he regularly pursued. In 1779 we
visited him, and tried the following experiment.
He was attended to the river by a person who
emptied his buckets repeatedly after Peter had
repeatedly filled them. A shilling was put be-
fore his face into one of the buckets when it
was empty ; he took no notice of it, but filled
it with water and carried it homeward : his
buckets were taken from him before he reached
the house, and emptied on the ground ; the shil-
ling, which had fallen out, was again shown to
him, and put into the bucket. Peter returned
to the river again, filled his bucket and went
home ; and when the bucket was emptied by
the maid of the house where he lived, he took the
shilling and laid in a place where he was ac-
customed to deposit the presents that were made
to him by curious strangers, and whence the
farmer's wife collected the price of his daily
exhibition.

Rousseau declaims with eloquence, and often
with justice, against what he calls a knowledge
of words. Words without correspondent ideas
are worse than useless ; they are counterfeit

Tasks. SI

coin, which imposes upon the ignorant and un-
wary ; but words^ which really represent ideas,
are not only of current use, but of sterling
value ; they not only show our present store, but
they increase our wealth by keeping it in con-
tinual circulation ; both the principal and the
interest increase together. The importance of
signs and words in our reasonings has been
eloquently explained, since the time of Condil-
lac, by Stewart. We must borrow the ideas of
these excellent writers, because they are just,
and applicable to the art of education ; but
whilst we borrow, it is with proper acknow-
ledgments that we shall never be able to make a
sufficient return.

It is a nice and difficult thing in education
to proportion a child's vocabulary exactly to
his knowledge, dispositions, or conformation ;
our management must vary ; some will acquire
words too quickly, others too slowly. A
child who has great facility in pronouncing
sounds, will for that reason quickly acquire a
number of words, whilst those whose organs of
speech are not so happily formed, will from
that cause alone be less ready in forming a co-
pious vocabulary. Children who have many
companions, or who live with people who con-
verse a great deal, have more motive, both from
sympathy and emulation, to acquire a variety of

VOL. I. G

82 Practical Education,

words, than those can have, who live with silent
people, and who have few companions of their
own age. All these circumstances should be
considered by parents, before they form their
judgment of a child's capacity from his volu-
bility or his taciturnity. Volubility can easily
be checked by simply ceasing to attend to it,
and taciturnity may be vanquished by the en-
couragements of praise and affection : we should
neither be alarmed at one disposition, nor at the
other, but steadily pursue the system of con-
duct which will be most advantageous to each.
When a prattling vivacious child pours forth jl
multiplicity of words without understanding
their meaning, we may sometimes beg to have
an explanation of a few of them, and the child
will then be obliged to think, which will pre-
vent him from talking nonsense another time.
When a thoughtful boy, who is in the habit
of observing every object he sees, is at a loss
for words to express his ideas, his countenance
usually shows, to those who can read the
countenances of children, that he is not stupid ;
therefore we need not urge him to talk, but
assist him judiciously with words " in his ut~
" most need :" at the same time we should
observe carefully, whether he grows lazy when
we assist him; if his stock of words does not
increase in proportion to the assistance we give,
4

Tasks. 83

we should then stimulate him to exertion^ or
else he will become habitually indolent in ex-
pressing his idejas ; though he may think in a
language of his own, he will not be able to un-
derstand our language when we attempt to teach
him : this ^ould be a source of daily misery to
both parties.

When children begin to read, they seem sud*.
denly to acquire a great variety of words ; we
should carefully examine whether they annex
the proper meaning to those which are so ra*
pidly collected. Instead of giving them lessons
and tasks to get by rote, we should cautiously
watch over every new phrase and every new
word which they learn from books. There are
but few books so written as that young children
can comprehend a single sentence in them
without much explanation. It is tiresome to
those who hear them read to explain every
word ; it is not only tiresome but difficult ; be-
sides, the progress of the pupil seems to be re-
tarded ; the grand business of reading, of getting
through the book is impeded ; and the tutor,
more impatient than his pupil, says, ^^ Read on,
" I cannot stop to explain that to you now.
" You will understand the meaning of the sen-
" tence if you will read to the end of the page.
" You have not read three lines this half hour ;
'^ we shall never get on at this rate."

G 2

84 Practical Education.

A certain dame at a country* school, who had
never been able to compass the word Nebuchad-
nezzar, used to desire her pupils to '* call it
" Nazareth, and let it pass."

If children be obliged to pass over w^ords
without comprehending them in books, they
will probably do the same in conversation ; and
he difficulty of teaching such pupils, and of
understanding what they say, will be equally
increased. At the hazard of being tedious we
must dwell a little longer upon this subject,
because much of the future capacity of chil-
dren seems to depend upon the manner in
which they first acquire language. If their
language be confused, so will be their thoughts ;
and they will not be able to reason, to invent, or
to write, with more precision and accuracy than
they speak. The first words that children learn
are the names of things ; these are easily asso-
ciated with the objects themselves, and there is
little danger of mistake or confusion. We will
not enter into the grammatical dispute concern-
ing the right of precedency amongst pronouns,
substantives, and verbs ; we do not know which
came first into the mind of man ; perhaps in
different minds, and in different circumstances,
the precedency must have varied ; but this seems
to be of little consequence : children sec actions
performed^ and they act themselves ; when they

Tasks. S5

want to express the remembrance of these ac^
tions, they make use of the sort of words which
we call verbs. Let these words be strictly
associated with the ideas which they mean to
express, and no matter whether children know
any thing about the disputes of grammarians ;
they will understand rational grammar in due
time, simply by reflecting upon their own
minds. This we shall explain more fully when
we speak hereafter of grammar; we just men-
tion the subject here, to warn preceptors against
puzzling their pupils too early with grammatical
subtleties.

If any person unused to mechanics were to
read Dr. Desagulier's description of the manner
in which a man walks, the number of a-b-cs,
and the travels of the centre of gravity, would
so amaze and confound him, that he would
scarcely believe he could ever again perform
such a tremendous operation as that of walking.
Children, if they were early to hear gramma-
rians talk of the parts of speech, and of syntax,
would conclude, that to speak must be one of
the most difficult arts in the world : but chil-
dren, who are not usually so unfortunate as to
have grammarians for their preceptors when
they first begin to speak, acquire language with-
out being aware of the difficulties which would
appear so formidable in theory, A child points

3

36 * Pi^actical . Education.

to, or touches the table, and when the word
table is repeated, at the same instant he learns
the name of the thing. The facility with which
a number of names are thus learned in infancy-
is surprising, but we must not imagine that the
child in learning these names has acquired much
knowledge ; he has prepared himself to be
taught, but' he has not yet learnt any thing ac-
curately. When a child sees a guinea and a
shilhng, and smiling says, *^ That's a guinea,
''mamma! and that's a shilling ! " the mother
is pleased and surprised at her son's intelligence,
and she gives him credit for more than he really
possesses. We have associated with the words
guinea and shilling a number of ideas, and
whea we hear the same words pronounced by
a young child, we perhaps have some confused
belief that he has acquired the same ideas that
we have ; hence we are pleased with the mere
sound of words of high import from infantine
lips.

Children who are dehghted in their turn by
the expression of pleasure in the countenance of
others, repeat the things which they perceive
have pleased; and thus their education is be-
gun by those who first smile upon them, and
who listen to them when they attempt to speak.
They who applaud children for knowing the
D^mes of things, induce them quickly to learn

Tasks. 87

a number of names by rote : as long as they
learn the names of external objects only, which
they can see, and smell, and touch, all is well ;
the names will convey distinct ideas of certain
perceptions. A child who learns the name of
a taste, or of a colour, who learns that the taste
of sugar is called sweet, and that the colour of
a red rose is called red, has learned distinct
words to express certain perceptions ; and we
can at any future time recall to his mind the
memory of those perceptions by means of their
names, and he understands us as well as the
most learned philosopher. But, suppose that a
boy had learned only the name of gold ; that,
when different metals were shown to him, he
could put his finger upon gold, and say, " That
" is gold ; *' yet this boy does not know all the
properties of gold, he does not know in what it
differs from other metals, to what uses it is ap-
plied in arts, manufactures, and commerce ; the
name of gold in his mind represents nothing more
than a substance of a bright yellow colour, upon
which people, he does not precisely know why,
set a great value. Now, it is very possible that
a child might, on the contrary, learn all the pro-
perties, and the various uses of gold, without
having learned its name ; his ideas of this metal
would be perfectly distinct; but whenever he
wished to speak of gold, he would be obliged

»8 Practical Education*

to use a vast deal of circumlocution to make
himself understood ; and if he were to enume-
rate all the properties of tfie metal every time
he wanted to recall the general idea, his con-
versation would be intolerably tedious to others,
and to himself this useless repetition must be
extremely laborious. He would certainly be
glad to learn that single word gold, which would
eave him «o much trouble ; his understanding
would appear suddenly to have improved, sim-
ply from his having acquired a proper sign to
represent his ideas. The boy who had learnt the
name, without knowing any of the properties of
gold, would also appear comparatively ignorant
as soon as it was discovered that he had few
ideas annexed to the word. It is, perhaps, for
this reason, that some children seem suddenly
to shine out with knowledge, which no one
suspected they possessed, whilst others who had
appeared to be very quick and clever come to a
dead stop in their education, and appear to be
blighted by some unknown cause. The children
who suddenly shine out, are those who had ac-
quired a number of ideas, and who, the moment
they acquire proper words, can communicate
their thoughts to others. Those children who
suddenly seem to lose their superiority, are such
as had acquired a variety of words, but had not
annexed ideas to them ; when their ignorance

Tasks. 89

is detected, we not only despair of them, but
they are apt to despair of themselves ; they see
their companions get before them, and they do
not exactly perceive the cause of their sudden
incapacity. Where we speak of sensible, visible,
tangible objects, we can easily detect and re-
medy a child's ignorance. It is easy to discover
whether he has or has not a complete notion of
such a substance as gold : we can enumerate its
properties, and readily point out in what his
definition is defective. The substance can be
easily produced for examination ; most of its
properties are obvious to the senses ; we have
nothing to do but to show them to the child,
and to associate with each property its usual
name ; here there can be no danger of puzzling
his understanding ; but when we come to the
explanation of words which do not represent
external objects, we shall find the affair more
difficult. We can make children understand
the meaning of those words which are the
names of simple feelings of the mind, such as
surprise, joy, grief, pity ; because we can either
put our pupils in situations where they actually
feel these sensations, and then we may associate
the name with the feeling ; or we may, by the
example of other people who actually suffer pain
or enjoy pleasure, point out what we mean by
the words joy and grief. But how shall we

90 Practical Education,

explain to our young pupils a number of words
which represent neither existing substances
nor simple feelings, when we can neither recur
to experiment nor to sympathy for assistance?
How shall we explain, for instance, the words
virtue, justice, benevolence, beauty, taste, &c. ?
To analyse our own ideas of these is no easy
task : to explain the process to a young child is
scarcely possible. Call upon any man who has
read and reflected, for a definition of virtue, the
whole " theory of moral sentiments" rises per-
haps to his view at once in all its elegance ; the
paradoxical acumen of Mandeville, the per-
spicuous reasoning of Hume, the accurate me-
-taphysics of Condillac, the persuasive eloquence
of Stewart; all the various doctrines that have
been supported concerning the foundation of
morals, such as the fitness of things, the moral
sense, the beauty of truth, utility, sympathy,
common sense ; all that has been said by ancient
and modern philosophers, is recalled in transient
and perplexing succession to his memory. If
such be the state of mind of the man who is to
define, what must be the condition of the child
who is to understand the definition ? All that
a prudent person will attempt, is to give in-
stances of different virtues ; but even these it
will be difl[icult properly to select for a child.
General terms, whether in morals or in natural

Tasks. 91

philosophy, should, we apprehend, be as much
as possible avoided in early education. Some
people may imagine that children have improved
in virtue and wisdom when they can talk
fluently of justice, and charity, and humanity :
when they can read with a good emphasis didac-
tic compositions in verse or prose : but let any
person of sober common sense be allowed to
cross-examine these proficients, and the pre-
tended extent of th^ir knowledge will sink into
a narrow compass ; nor will their virtues, which
have never seen service, be ready for action.

General terms are, as it were, but the endorse-
ments upon the bundles of our ideas ; they are
useful to those who have collected a number of
ideas, but utterly useless to those who have
no collections ready for classification : nor should
we be in a hurry to tie up the bundles, till we
are sure that the collection is tolerably com-
plete ; the trouble, the diflSculty, the shame of
untying them late in life is felt even by superior
minds. ^* Sir," said Dr. Johnson, '' I don't like
'' to have any of my opinions attacked. I have
" made up my faggot, and if you draw out one
*^ you weaken the whole."

Preceptors sometimes explain general terms
and abstract notions vaguely to their pupils,
because they are ashamed to make that answer
which every sensible person must frequently

92 Practical Education.

make to a child's inquiries, — *^ I don't know.'**
Surely it is much better to say at once, " I
" cannot explain this to you," than to attempt
an imperfect or sophistical reply. Fortunately
for us, children, if they are not forced to at-
tend to studies for which they have no taste,
will not trouble us much with moral and meta-
physical questions: their attention will be fully
employed upon external objects; intent upon
experiments, they will not be very inquisitive
about theories. Let us then take care that
their simple idras be accurate, and when these
are compounded, their complex notions, their
principles, opinions, and tastes, will necessarily
be just; their language will then be as accu*
rate as their ideas are distinct ; and hence they
will be enabled to reason with precision, and
to invent with facility. We may observe, that
the great difficulty in reasoning is to f\yi steadily
upon our terms ; ideas can be readily compared,
when the words by which we express them are
defined ; as in arithmetic and algebra, we can
easily solve any problem, when we have precise
signs for all the numbers and quantities which
are to be considered.

It is not from idleness, it is not from stupidity,
it is not from obstinacy, that children frequently

♦ Rousseau.

Tasks. 93

show an indisposition to listen to those who
attempt to explain things to them. The exer-
tion of attention, which is frequently required
from them, is too great for the patience of child-
hood : the words that are used are so inaccurate
in their signification, that they convey to the
mind sometimes one idea and sometimes an-
other ; we might as well require of them to cast
up a sum right whilst we rubbed out and changed
the figures every instant, as expect that they
should seize a combination of ideas presented to
them in variable words. Whoever expects to
command the attention of an intelligent child,
must be extremely careful in the use of words.
If the pupil be paid for the labour of listening by
the pleasure of understanding what is said, he
will attend, whether it be to his playfellow
or to his tutor, to conversation or to books.
But if he has by fatal experience discovered,
that, let him listen ever so attentively, he c*annot
understand, he will spare himself the trouble of
fruitless exertion ; and, though he may put on a
face of attention, his thoughts will wander far
from his tutor and his tasks.

" It is impossible to fix the attention of chil-
" dren,'* exclaims the tutor ; " when this boy
" attends he can do any thing, but he will not
" attend for a single instant."

Alas ! it is in vain to say he will not attend —
he cannot.

94 Practical Educatmi*

f*i«1tf5K>fcl

CHAPTER IIL

On Attejition,

PeRE bourgeois, one of the missionaries
of China, attempted to preach a Chinese sermon
to the Chinese. His own account of the business
is the best we can give.

" They told me Chou signifies a book, so
^' that I thought whenever the word Chou was
*^ pronounced a book was the subject of dis-
*'• course ; not at all. Chou, the next time I
" heard it, I found signified a tree. Now I
" was to recollect Chou was a book, and a
" tree ; but this amounted to nothing. Chou
" I found also expressed great heats, Chou is
" to relate, Chou is the Ju7'ora. Chou means
" to be accustomed. Chou expresses the loss of
" a wager ^ &c. I should never have done w^ere
" I to enumerate all its meanings * * *

« #

" I recited my sermon at least fifty times to
" my servant before I spoke it in public, and
" yet I am told, though he continually cor-
^^ rected me, that of the ten parts of the sermon
" (as the Chinese express themselves) they

Attention, 95

" hardly understood three. Fortunately the
** Chinese are wonderfully patient."

Children are sometimes in the condition in
which the Chinese found themselves at this
learned missonary's sermon, and their patience
deserves to be equally commended. The dif-
ficulty of understanding the Chinese Chou
strikes us immediately, and we sympathise with
Pere Bourgeois's perplexity : yet many words,
which are in common use amongst us, may per-
haps be as puzzling to children. Block, (see
Johnson's Dictionary) signifies a hea'vy piece of
timber, a mass of matter. Block means the
wood on which hats are formed. Block means
the wood on which criminals are beheaded.
Block is a sea term for a pulley. Block is an
obstruction, a stop; and, finally. Block means
a blockhead, — Children do not perceive that
the metaphoric meanings of this word are all
derived from the original Block, There are
in our language ten meanings for sweet, ten for
open, twenty-two for upon, 2^\^i sixty-three for
to fall. Such are the defects of language ! but,
whatever they may be, we cannot hope imme-
diately to see them reformed, because common
consent and universal custom must combine
to establish a new vocabulary. None but
philosophers could invent, and none but philo-
sophers would adopt a philosophical language.

96 Practical Education.

The new pliilosophical language of chemistry
was received at first with some reluctance, even
by chemists, notwithstanding its obvious utility
and elegance. Butter of antimony, and liver of
sulphur, flowers of zinc, oil of vitriol, and spirit
of sulphur by the bell, powder of algaroth, and
salt of alembroth, may yet long retain their
ancient titles amongst apothecaries. There
does not exist in the mineral kingdom either
butter or oil, or yet flowers ; these treacherous
names * are given to the most violent poisons, so
that there is no analogy to guide the understand-
ing or the memory : but Custom has a prescrip*.
live right to talk nonsense. The barbarous enigma-
tical jargon of the ancient adepts continued for
above a century to be the only chemical language
<rf men of science, notwithstanding the prodigious
labour to the memory, and confusion to the un-
derstanding, which occasioned it. Capricious
analogy with diflficulty yields to rational arrange-
ment. If such has been the slow progress of a
philosophical language amongst the learned, how
can we expect to make a general, or even a par-
tial, reformation amongst the ignorant? and it may
be asked, how can we in education attempt to
teach in any but customary terms ? There is no
occasion to make any sudden or violent alteration

* V. Preface to Bertliollet's Chemical Nomenclature.

Attention, 97

in language, but a man who attempts to teach
will find it necessary to select his terms with care,
to define them with accuracy, and to abide by
them with steadiness ; thus he will make a
philosophical vocabulary for himself. Persons
who want to puzzle and to deceive, always pur-
sue a contrary practice ; they use as great a
variety of unmeaning, or of ambiguous words, as
they possibly can.* That state juggler, Oliver
Cromwell, excelled in this species of eloquence ;
his speeches are models in their kind. Count
Cagliostro, and the Countess de la Motte, were
not his superiors in the power of baffling the un-
derstanding. The ancient oracles, and the old
books of judicial astrologers, and of alchemists,
were contrived upon the same principles ; in all
these we are confounded by a multiplicity of
words which convey a doubtful sense.

Children, who have not the habit of listening
to words without understanding them, yawn
and writhe with manifest symptoms of disgust
whenever they are compelled to hear sounds
which convey no ideas to their minds.

The common observation, that we can attend
to but one thing at a time, should never be
forgotten by those who expect to succeed in the
art of teaching. In teaching new terms, or

♦ V. Condillac's « Art de Penwr."
VOL. I. H

98 Practical Education.

new ideas, we must not produce a number at
once. It is prudent to consider, that the actual
progress made in our business at one sitting
is not of so much consequence, as the desire
left in the pupil's mind to sit again. Now a
child will be better pleased with himself, and
with his tutor, if he acquire one distinct idea
from a lesson, than if he retain a confused notion^
of twenty different things. Some people ima-
gine, that as children appear averse to repetition,
variety will amuse them. Variety to a certain
degree certainly relieves the mind, but then the
objects which are varied must not all be entirely
new. Novelty and variety joined fatigue the
mind. Either we remain passive at the show,
or else we fatigue ourselves with ineffectual
activity.

A few years ago a gentleman* brought two
Eskimaux to London : he wished to amuse, and
at the same time to astonish them, with the
magnificence of the metropolis. For this purpose
after having equipped them like English gentle-
men, he took them out one morning to walk
through the streets of London. They walked for
several hours in silence ; they expressed neither
pleasure nor admiration at any thing which
they saw. When their walk was ended, they

• Major (Jartwright. See his Journal, &c.

Attention. 99

appeared uncommonly melancholy and stupified.
As soon as they got home they sat down with their
elbows upon their knees, and hid their faces
between their hands. The only words they
could be brought to utter were, " Too much
" smoke — too much noise — too much houses—
*^ too much men— too much every thing ! "

Some people who attend public lectures
upon natural philosophy, with the expectation
of being much amused and instructed, go honie
with sensations similar to those of the poor
Eskimaux ; they feel that they have had too
much of every thing. The lecturer has not
time to explain his terms, or to repeat them till
they are distinct in the memory of his audience.
I To children every mode of instruction must be
/ hurtful which fatigues attention ; therefore a
skilful preceptor will as much as possible avoid
the manner of teaching, to which the public
lecturer is in some degree compelled by his
situation. A private preceptor^ who undertakes
the instruction of several pupils in the same
family, will examine with care the different
habits and tempers of his pupils ; and he will
have full leisure to adapt his instructions pecu-
liarly to each.

There are some general observations which ap«
ply to all understandings ; these we shall first
enumerate, and we may afterwards examine what

H 2

100 Practical Education,

distinctions should be made for pupils of differ-
ent tempers or dispositions.

Besides distinctness and accuracy in the lan-
guage which we use, besides care to produce
but few ideas or terms that are new in our first
lessons, we must exercise attention but during
very short periods. In the beginning of every
science pupils have much laborious work ; we
should therefore allow them time ; we should
repress our own impatience when they appear
to be slow in comprehending reasons, or in seiz-
ing analogies. We often expect, that those
whom We are teaching should know some things
intuitively, because these may have been so long
known to us that we forget how we learned
them. We may from habit learn to pass with
extraordinary velocity from one idea to another.
'' Some often repeated processes of reasoning or
'* invention," says Mr. Stewart, *^ may be car-
" ried on so quickly in the mind, that we may
f^ not be conscious of them ourselves." Yet
we easily convince ourselves that this rapid faci-
lity of thought is purely the result of practice, by
observing the comparatively slow progress of
our understandings in subjects to which we
have not been accustomed : the progress of the
mind is there so slow, that we can count every
step.

We are disposed to think that those must be

t

Atte7ition, 101

naturally slow and stupid, who do not perceive
the reseniblances between objects which strike
us, we say, at the first glance. But what we
call the first glance is frequently the fiftieth ; we
have got the things completely by heart ; all the
parts are known to us, and we are at leisure to
compare and judge. A reasonable preceptor
will not expect from his pupil two efforts of at-
tention at the same instant ; he will not require
them at once to learn terms by heart, and to
compare the objects which those terms repre-
sent ; he will repeat his terms till they are tho-
roughly fixed in the memory ; he will repeat
his reasoning till the chain of ideas is completely
formed.

Repetition makes all operations easy ; even
the fatigue of thinking diminishes by habit. —
That we may not increase the labour of the
mind unseasonably, we should watch for the
moment when habit has made one lesson easy,
and then we may go forward a new step. In
teaching the children at the House of Industry
at Munich to spin, Count Rumford wisely or-
dered that they should be made perfect in one
motion before any other was shown to them : at
first they were allowed only to move the wheel
by the treadle with their feet; when, after suf-
ficient practice, the foot became perfect in its
lesson, the hands wqre set tQ work, and the chil-

loa Practical Education.

dren were allowed to begin to spin with coarse
materials. It is said that these children made
remarkably good spiimers. Madame de Genlis
applied the same principle in teaching Adela to
play uppn the harp.*

In the first attempts to learn any new bodily
exercise, as fencing or dancing, persons are not
certain what muscles they must use, and what
may be left at rest ; they generally employ those
of which they have the most ready command,
but these may not already be the muscles which
are really wanted in the new operation. The
simplest thing appears difficult till by practice
we have associated the various slight motions
which ought to be combined ; we feel that from
want of use our motions are not obedient to our
will, and to supply this defect we exert more
strength and activity than is requisite. '^ It does
^* not require strength ; you need not use so
^^ much force; you need not take so much
f^ pains ;" we frequently say to those who are
making the first painful, awkward attempts at
some simple operation. Can any thing appear
more easy than knitting, when we look at the
dexterous rapid motions of an experienced prac-
titioner ? but let a gentleman take up a lady's
knitting needles, and knitting appears to him,

* V. Adela and Theodore,

Attention. ]03

and to all the spectators, one of the most diffi-
cult and laborious operations imaginable. A
lady who is learning to work with a tambour
needle puts her head down close to the tambour
frame, the colour comes into her face, she
strains her eyes, all her faculties are exerted,
and perhaps she works at the rate of three links
a minute. A week afterwards, probably, prac-
tice has made the work perfectly easy ; the same
lady goes rapidly on with her work ; she can
talk, and laugh, and perhaps even think, whilst ■
she works ; she has now disct)vered that a num-
ber of the motions, and a great portion of that
attention which she thought necessary to this
mighty operation, maybe advantageously spared;
In a similar manner, in the exercise of our
minds upon subjects that are new to us, we ge-
nerally exert more attention than is necessary or
serviceable, and we consequently soon fatigue
ourselves without any advantage. Children, to
whom many subjects are new, are often fatigued
by these overstrained and misplaced efforts ; in
these circumstances a tutor should relieve the at-
tention by introducing indifferent subjects of
conversation ; he can, by showing no anxiety
himself either in his manner or countenance,
relieve his pupil from any apprehension of his
displeasure, or of his contempt ; he can represent
that the object before them is not a matter of

104 Practical Education.

life and death ; that if the child does not sue*
ceed in the first trials he will not be disgraced
in the opinion of any of his friends ; that by
perseverance he will certainly conquer the dif-
ficulty; that it is of little consequence whether
he understands the thing in question to-day or
to-morrow: these considerations will calm the
over-anxious pupil's agitation, and, whether
he succeed or not, he will not suffer such a
degree of pain as to disgust him in his first at-
tempts.

Besides the command which we by this pru-
dent management obtain over the pupil's mind,
we shall also prevent him from acquiring any of
those awkward gestures and involuntary motions
which are sometimes practised to relieve the
pain of attention.

Dr. Darwin observes, that when we expe-
rience any disagreeable sensations we endeavour
to procure ourselves temporary relief by motions
of those muscles and limbs which are most ha-
bitually obedient to our will. This observation
extends to mental as well as to bodily pain ; thus
persons in violent grief wring their hands and
convulse their countenances ; those who are sub-
ject to the petty, but acute miseries of false
shame, endeavour to relieve themselves by awk-
ward gestures and continual motions, A plough-
jboy, when he is br<;)ught into, the presence of

Jt tent ion. 305

those whom he thinks his superiors, endeavours
to relieve himself from the uneasy sensations
of falsq shame, by twirling his hat upon his
fingers, and by various uncouth gestures. Men
who think a great deal, sometimes acquire
habitual awkward gestures to relieve the pain qf
intense thought.

When attention first becomes irksome to chil-
dren, they mitigate the mental pain by wrink-
ling their brows, or they fidget and put themselves
into strange attitudes. These odd motions,
which at first are voluntary, after they have
been frequently associated with certain states of
mind, constantly recur involuntarily with those
feelings or ideas with which they have been
connected. For instance, a boy, who has been
used to buckle and unbuckle his shoe when he
repeats his lesson by rote, cannot repeal his
lesson without performing this operatipp j. it
becomes a sort of artificial memory which is
necessary to prompt his recollective faculty.
When children have a "variety of tricks of this
sort they are of little consequence, but when
they have acquired a few constant and habitual
motions, whilst they think, or rej^eat, or listen,
these should be attended to, and the habits
should be broken, otherwise these young people
will appear when they grow up awkward and
ridiculous in their manners ; and, what is

106 Practical Education^,

worse, perhaps their thoughts and abihties will
be too much in the power of external circum-
stances. Addison represents with much humour
the case of a poor man who had the habit of
twirling a bit of thread round his finger; the
thread was accidentally broken, and the orator
stood mute.

To prevent children from acquiring such
awkward tricks whilst they are thinking, we
should in the first place take care not to make
them attend for too long a time together, then
the pain of attention will not be so violent as to
compel them to use these strange modes of re-
lief. Bodily exercise should immediately follow
that entire state of rest, in which our pupils
ought to keep themselves whilst they attend.
The first symptoms of any awkward trick should
be watched : they are easily prevented by early
^res from becoming habitual. If any such
tricks have been acquired, and if the pupil
cannot exert his attention without certain con-
tortions are permitted, we should attempt the
cure either by sadden slight bodily pain, or by
a total suspension of all the employments with
which these bad habits are associated. If a boy
could not read without swinging his head like
a pendulum, we should rather prohibit hira
from reading for some time, than suffer him to
grow up with this ridiculous habit. But in

3

Attention. 107

conversation, whenevT opportunities occur of
telling him any thing in which l»e is particularly-
interested; we should refuse to gratify his curio-
sity unless he keeps himself perfectly still. The
excitement here would be sufficient to conquer
the habit.

Whatever is connected with pain or pleasure
commands our attention ; but to make this ge-
neral observation useful in education, we must
examine what degrees of stimulus are necessary
for different pupils, and in different circum-
stances. We have formerly observed, that it is
not prudent early to use violent or continual
stimulus, either of a painful or a pleasureable
nature, to excite children to application, be-
cause we should by an intemperate use of these
weaken the mind, and because we may with a
little patience obtain all we wish without these
expedients. Besides these reasons, there is an-
other potent argument against using violent
motives to excite attention ; such motives fre-
quently disturb and dissipate the very attention
which they attempt to fix. If a child be threat-
ened with severe punishment, or flattered with
the promise of some delicious reward, in order
to induce his performance of any particular task,
he desires instantly to perform the task; but
this desire will not ensure his success : unless
he has previously acquired the habit of voluntary

108 Ff^actical Education.

exertion, he will not be able to turn his mind
from his ardent wishes, even to the means of
accomplishing them. He will be in the situation
of Alnaschar, in the Arabian tales, who, whilst
he dreamt of his future grandeur, forgot his
immediate business.

To teach any new habit or art, we must not
employ any alarming excitements; small, cer-
tain, reojularly recurring motives, which interest,
but which do not distract the mind, are evidently
the best. The aricient inhabitants of Minorca
were said to be the best slingers in the world ;
when they were children, every morning what
they wej'e to eat was slightly fastened to high
poles, and they were obhged to throw down their
breakfast with their slings from the places where
they were suspended, before they could satisfy
their hunger. The motive seems to have been
here well proportioned to the effect that was
required ; it could not be any great misfortune
to a boy to go without his breakfast ; but as this
motive returned every morning, it became
sufficiently serious to the hungry slingers.

It is impossible to explain this subject so as to
be of use, without descending to minute parti-
culars. When a mother says to her little daugh-
ter, as she places on the table before her a
bunch of ripe cherries, *' Tell me, my dear,
^* how many cherries zve there, and I will give

Attention. 109

*' them to you?" — the child's attention is fixed
instantly ; there is a sufficient motive ; not a
motive wMch excites any violent passions, but
which raises just such a degree of hope as i^
necessary to produce attention. The little girl,
if she knows from experience that her mother's
promise will be kept, and that her own patience
is likely to succeed, counts the cherries care-
fully, has her reward, and upon the next similar
trial she will from this success be still more
disposed to exert her attention. The pleasure
of eating cherries, associated with the pleasure
of success, will balance the pain of a iew mo-
ments' prolonged application, and by degrees
the cherries may he withdrawn, and the asso*
ciation of pleasure will remain. Objects or
thoughts, that have been associated with plea-
sure, retain the power of pleasing; as the
needle touched by the loadstone acquires po-
larity, and retains it long after the loadstone is
withdrawn.

Whenever attention is habitually raised by the
power of association, we should be careful to
withdraw all the excitements that were originally
used, because these are now unnecessary ; and,
as we have formerly observed, the steady ruls
with respect to stimulus should be to give the
least possible quantity that will produce the
effect we want. Success is a great pleasure ;

f^^ Practical Education.

a? soon as children become sensible to this pl«i-
sure, that is to say, when they have tasted it
two or three times, they will exert their atten-
tion merely with the hope of succeeding. We
have seen a little boy of three years old, frown-
ing with attention for several minutes together,
whilst he was trying to clasp and unclasp a
lady's bracelet ; his whole soul was intent upon
the business, he neither saw or heard any thing
else that passed in the room, though several
people were talking, and some happened to be
looking at him. The pleasure of success, when
he had clasped the bracelet, was quite sufficient ;
he looked for no praise, though he was perhaps
pleased with the sympathy that was shown in
his success. Sympathy is a better reward for
young children in such circumstances than
praise, because it does not excite vanity, and it
is connected with benevolent feelings ; besides, it
is not so violent a stimulus as applause.

Instead of increasing excitements to produce
attention, we may vary them, which will have
just the same effect. When sympathy fails, try
curiosity ; when curiosity fails, try praise ;
when praise begins to lose its effect, try blame :
and when you go back again to sympathy, you
will find, that after this interval, it will have re-
covered all its original power. Doctor Darwin,
who has the happy art of illustrating, from the

Attention, 111

most familiar circumstances in real life, the ab-
stract theories of pljilosophy, gives us the fol-
lowing picturesque instance of the use of vary*
ing motives to prolong exertion.

" A little boy, who was tired of wstlking,
" begged of his papa to carry him. ^ Here,*
" says the reverend doctor, ' ride upon my gold-
" headed cane;" and the pleased child, putting
" it between his legs, gallopped away with de-
« light."

Alexander the Great one day saw a poor man
carrying upon his shoulders a heavy load of sil-
ver for the royal camp : the man tottered under
his burthen, and was ready to give up the point
from fatigue. " Hold on, friend, the rest of the
*^ way, and carry it to your own tent, for it is
" your's," said Alexander.

There are some people who have the power
of exciting others to great mental exertions, not
l)y the promise of specific rewards, or by the
threats of any punishment, but by the ardent
ambition which they inspire, by the high value
•which is set upon their love and esteem. When
we have formed a high opinion of a friend, his
approbation becomes necessary to our own self-
complacency, and we think no labour too great
to satisfy our attachment. Our exertions are
not fatiguing, because they are associated with
all the pleasurable sensations of affection, self-

112 Practical Ediicatmu

complacency, benevolence, and liberty. These
feelings in youth produce all the virtuous en-
thusiasm characteristic of great minds ; even
childhood is capable of it in some degree, as
those parents well know, who have ever enjoyed
the attachment of a grateful, affectionate child.
, Those, who neglect to cultivate the affections of
their pupils, will never be able to excite them to
" noble ends," by *^ noble means." Theirs will
be the dominion of fear, from which reason will
emancipate herself, and from which pride will
yet more certainly revolt.

If Henry the Fourth of France had been re-
duced like Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, to
earn his bread as a schoolmaster, what a differ-
ent preceptor he would probably have made !
Dionysius must have been hated by his scholars
as much as by his subjects ; for it is said, that
*^ he practised upon children that tyranny which
'* he could no longer exercise over men."*

The ambassador, who found Henry the Fourth
playing upon the carpet with his children,
would probably have trusted his own children, if
he had any, to the care of such an affectionate
tutor. ^) ^"^

Henry the Fourth would have attached his
pupils whilst he instructed them ; they would

* Cicero.

Attention* 113

have exerted themselves because they could not
have been happy without his esteem. Henfy*s
courtiers, or rather his friends, for though he
w«8 a king he had friends, sometimes expressed
surprise at their own disinterestedness : '^ This
" king pays us with words," said they, ^^ and
" yet we are satisfied ! " Sully, when he was
only Baron de Rosny, and before he had any
hopes of being a duke, was once in a passion
with the king his master, and half resolved to
leave him: " But I don't know how it was,"
says the honest minister ; " with all his faults,
" there is something about Henry which I
" found I could not leave ; and when I met hrrti
" agaiM, a few words made me forget all my
*^ causes of discontent."

Children are more easily attached than cour^
tiers, and full as easily rewarded. When once
this generous desire of affection and esteem is
raised in the mind, their exertions seem to be unr-
versat and spontaneous : children are then no
longer like machines, which require to be wound
up regularly to perform certain revolutions ;
they are animated with a living principle, which
directs all that it inspires.

We have endeavoured to point out the genef-
ral excitements, and the general precautions^ to
be used^ in cultivating the power of attention ;
it may be expected that we should more particu-

VOL. I. I

114 Pi^actical Education.'

larly apply these to the characters of different
pupils. We shall not here examine whether
there be any original difference of character or
intellect, because this would lead into a wide
theoretical discussion ; a difference in the tem-
per and talents of children early appears, and
some practical remarks may be of service to cor-
rect defects, or to improve] abiHties, whether we
suppose them to be natural or acquired. The
first differences which a preceptor observes be-
tween his pupils, when he begins to teach them,
are perhaps scarcely marked so strongly as to
strike the careless spectator ; but in a few years
these varieties are apparent to every eye. This
seems to prove, that during the interval the
power of education has operated strongly to increase
the original propensities. The quick and slow,
the timid and presumptuous, should be early in-
structed, so as to correct as much as possible
their several defects.

The manner in which children are first in-
structed must tend either to increase or diminish
their timidity or their confidence in themselves,
to encourage them to undertake great things, or
to rest content with limited acquirements. Young
people, who have found from experience that
they cannot remember or understand one half of
what is forced upon their attention, become ex-
tremely diffident of their own capacity, and they

Attention. 115

\Vill not undertake as much even as they are able
to perform. With timid tempers, we should
therefore begin by expecting but little from each
effort, but whatever is attempted should be cer-
tainly within their attainment; success will en-
courage the most timid humility. It should be
carefully pointed out to diffident children that
attentive patience can do as much as quickness
of intellect; if they perceive that time makes
all the difference between the quick and the
slow, they will be induced to persevere. The
transition of attention from one subject to ano-
other is difficult to some children, to others it is
easy ; if all be expected to do the same things
in an equal period of time, the slow will abso-
lutely give up the competition ; but, on the con-
trary, if they are allowed time, they will accom-
plish their purposes. We have been confirmed
in our belief of this doctrine by experiments ;
the same problems have been frequently given to
children of different degrees of quickness, and
though some succeeded much more quickly
than others, all the individuals in the family
have persevered till they have solved the ques-
tions : and the timid seem to have been more
encouraged by this practical demonstration of
the infallibility of persevering attention, than by
any other methods which have been tried.
When, after a number of small successful trials,

12

l}& Practical Education.

they haye Required some sharf of confidence in
themselves, when they are certain of the possi-
biUty of their performing any given operations,
W^ may t^l,^a press them a httle as to velocity:
wJji^n ^tiey i^r^ well acquainted with any set of
id^£^s, \Y^ np^y urge then> to quick transition of
^Hentior^ feojin on^ to another ; but if we insist
iipoi;i this rapidity of tra,nsitioa before they are
thproughly acquainted with each idea in tlie as,-
serablage, we shall only increase thei,r timidity
%nd hesitiation : we shall confound their under-
standings, ^d depress their? anibition.

Jt i^s qS consequence to distinguish^ between
siJoiW and sluggish attention, : sometimes chil-
dren appear stupid an4 heavy, when they are
absolutely exhausted by too great efforts of at-
tention ; at other timi^s- they have something
llil^e tihe sa^ae dulness of g^pect, before they
have had any thing to ftitigue them, merely from
their not buying yet awafeened themselves tp
business, "V^e must l?e certain of our pupijifs
state of mind before we proceed. If he be in-
capa^i|:ated from, fatigue, liet him rest ; i£ he be
torpid, rouse him with a. natitling p^al of thu^i-
dei; ; but bq sure that you have npt,, ^^ it has
been said of Jupite^r,*- recourse ta your thunder
only when, ypi^r ^r^e in the wrong. Some precep-

Atteniion. \\f

tors scold when they catinot explain, and grow
atigry in proportion to the fatigue they see ex-
pressicd in the Countenance of thfeir utihappy
pupils. If a timid child fore^ee^ that an expla-
nation will probably end in a philippic^ he eari-
not fix his attention, he is anticipating the evil
of your anger, instead of listening to your de-
monstrations; and he says, "Yes, yes, I sfefe,
" I kribtv, I utiderStand," with trembling eager-
ness, whilst throtigh the tiiist atid cotifusiort bf
his feaf-s,- he can scarcely sefe or hear, much le^s
understand, any thing. If you mistake the
cbnfusion and fatigue of terror for inattention or
indolence, and press your pupil to farther exer-
tions^ you will confirm, instead of curing his
stupidity. You must ditninish his fear before
yoti can increase his s(ttention. With childrfen
^ho are thus, from timid anxiety to please, dis-
posed to exert their faculties too much, it i^ ob-
vious that no excitation should be usefd, but
every playful, every affectionate means should
be etnployed to disi^ipate their apprehensions.

It is more difficult to ihanage with those whb
hate sluggish, than with those who have timid
attention. Indolent children have not usually
^ lively a taste for pleasure as others have ;
ihey do n6t^ seem to hear or to see quitkly ;
th6y are 66ntent with a little enjoyment ; they
h*te scarcely any ambition ; they seem tb prefer

118 Practical Education.

ease to all sorts of glory ; they have little vo-
luntary exertion ; and the pain of attention is
to them so great, that they would preferably en-
dure the pain of shame, and of all the accumu-
lated punishments which are commonly devised
for them by the vengeance of their exasperated
tutors. Locke notices this listless lazy humour
in children ; he classes it under the head " Saun-
" tering," and he divides saunterers into two spe-
cies ; those who saunter only at their books and
tasks ; and those who saunter at play and every
thing. The book-saunterers have only an acute,
the others have a chronic disease ; the one is ea-
sily cured, the other disease will cost more time
and pains.

If by some unlucky management a lively child
acquires a dislike to literary application, he may
appear at his books with all the stupid apathy of
a dunce. In this state of literary dereliction,
we should not force books and tasks of any sort
upon him ; we should rather watch him when he
is eager at amusements of his own selection,
observe to what his attention turns, and culti-
vate it upon that subject, whatever it may be.
He may be led to think and to acquire know-
ledge upon a variety of subjects, without sitting
down to read ; and thus he may form habits of
attention and of application, which will be asso-
ciated with pleasure. When he returns to books

k

Attention* 1 1 9

he will find that he understands a variety of
things in them which before appeared incompre-
hensible ; they will " give him back the image
*^ of his mind," and he will like them as he likes
pictures.

As long as a child shows energy upon any oc-
casion, there is hope : if he " lend his little
" soul"* to whipping atop, there is no danger of
his being a dunce. When Alcibiades was a
child, he was one day playing at dice with other
boys in the street ; a loaded waggon came up
just as it was his turn to throw. At first h^
called to the driver to stop, but the waggoner
would not stop his horses ; all the boys, except
Alcibiades, ran away, but Alcibiades threw him-
self upon his face directly before the horses, and
stretching himself out, bid the waggoner drive
on if he pleased. Perhaps at the time when he
showed this energy about a game at dice, Alci-
biades might have been a saunterer at his book,
and a foolish schoolmaster might have made him
a dunce.

Locke advises that children, who are too
much addicted to what is called play, should
be surfeited with it, that they may return to^
business with a better appetite. But this ad-
vice supposes that play has been previously in-

* ** And lends his little soul at eVery stroke." Virgil.

120 Practical Education,

terdicted^ or that it is something pernicious : we
h^YP endeavoured to show that play is nothing
but a change of employment, and that the at*
tentio^ way be exercised advantageously upon a
variety of subjects which are not called Tasks.

With those who show chronic listlessness,
Locke advises that we should use every sort of
stimulus; praise, amusement, fine clothes, eat-
ing ; any thing that will make them bestir them-
selves. He argues, that as there appears a defi-
isi^ncy of vigour, we have no reason to fear ex*
cess of appetite for any of these things : nay,
farther still, where none of these will act, he
advises compulsory bodily exercise. If we can*
i^ot, he says, make sure of the invisible atten-
tion of the mind, we may at least get something
dpne, prevent the habit of total idleness, and
perhaps make the children desire to exchange
labour of body for labour of mind. These ex-
pedients will, we fear, be found rather palliative
than effectual : if by forcing children to bodily
exercise, that becomes disagreeable, they may
prefer labour of the mind ; but in making this
exchange, or bargain, they are sensible that they
choose the least of the two evils. The evil of
application is diminished only by comparison in
tl:ieir estimation ; they will avoid it whenever
they are at liberty. The love of eating, of fine
clothes^ &c. if they stimulate a slothful child.

Attention. 121

must be the ultimate object of his exertions ;
he will consider the performance of his task
merely as a painful condition on his part. Still
the association of pain with literature continues ;
it is then impossible that he should love it.
There is no active principle within him, no de-
sire for knowledge excited ; his attention is
forced, it ceases the moment the external force
is withdrawn. He drudges to earn his cream
bowl duly set, but he will stretch his lubber
length the moment his task is done.

There is another class of children opposed to
saunterers, who show a vast deal of quickness
and vivacity; they understand almost before a
tutor can put his ideas into words ; they observe
a variety of objects, but they do not connect
their observations, and the very rapidity with
which they seize an explanation prevents them
from thoroughly comprehending it ; they are
easily disturbed by external objects when they
are thinking. As they have great sensibility,
their associations are strong and various ; their
thoughts branch oft' into a thousand beautiful,
but useless ramifications. Whilst you are at-
tempting to instruct them upon one subject,
they are inventing perhaps upon another, or
tbey are following a train of ideas suggested by
something you have said, but foreign to your
business. Tbey are more pleased with the dis-

122 Practical Education.

covery of resemblances than with discrimination
of difTerences : the one costs them more time
and attention than the other: they are apt to
say vyitty things, and to strike out sparks of in-
vention ; but they have not commonly the
patience to form exact judgments, or to bring
iheir first inventions to perfection. When they
begin the race, every body expects that they
should outstrip all competitors; but it is often
seen that slower rivals reach the goal before
them. The predictions formed of pupils of
this temperament vary much according to the
characters of their tutors. A slow man is pro-
voked by their dissipated vivacity, and, unable
to catch or fix their attention, prognosticates
that they will never have sufficient application
to learn any thing. This prophecy, under
certain tuition, would probably be accomplished.
The want of sympathy between a slow tutor and
a quick child is a great disadvantage to both ;
each insists upon going his own pace, and his
own way, and these ways are perhaps diametri-
cally opposite. Even in forming a judgment of
the child's attention, the tutor, who is not
acquainted with the manner in which his pupil
goes to work, is liable to frequent mistakes.
Children are sometimes suspected of not having
listened to what has been said to them, when
they cannot exactly repeat the words that they

Attention. ^ 123

have heard ; they often ask questions, and make
observations, which seem quite foreign to the
present business, but this is not always a proof
that their minds are absent, or that their attention
is dissipated. Their answers often appear to be
far from the point, because they suppress their
intermediate ideas, and give only the result of
their thoughts. This may be inconvenient to
those who teach them, but it sufficiently proves
that these children are not deficient in atten-
tion ; to cure them of the fault which they have
we should not accuse them falsely of another,
which they have not. But it may be questioned
whether this be a fault ; it is absolutely necessary
in many processes of the mind to suppress a
number of intermediate ideas. Life, if this were
not practised, would be too short for those who
think, and much too short for those who speak.
When somebody asked Pyrrhus which of two
musicians he liked the best, he answered, " Po-
ly sperchon is the best general. This would
appear to be the absurd answer of an absent
person, or of a fool, if we did not consider the
ideas that are implied, as well as those which are
expressed.

March 5th, 1796. To day, at dinner, a lady
observed that Nicholson, Williamson, Jackson,
&c. were names which originally meant the
30ns of Nicholas, William, J^ck, &c. A boy

124 * P r act iml Education.

who was present, H— — , added with a Vefy
grave face, as soon as she had finished speakihgj
'• Yes, ma'am, Tydides." His mother asked
him what he could mean by this absent speech ?
H — — calmly repeated, " Ma am, yes; because

^' I think it is like Tydides." His brother S

eagerly interposed to supply the intermediate
ideas ; **Yes indeed, mother,*' cried he, " H — ^—
'^ is not absent, because des in Greek means
" the son of (the race of). Tydides is the son of
^' Tydeus, as Jackson is the son of Jack. " In
this instance H-- — - was not absent, though he
did not make use of a sufficient number of
words to explain his ideas.

August, 1796. L , when he returned

home after some months' absence, entertained
his brothers and sisters with a new play, which
he had learned at Edinburgh. He told them
that when he struck the table with his hand
every person present was instantaneously to re-
main fixed in the attitudes in which they should
be when the blow was given. The attitudes
in which some of the little company Were fixed
occasioned much diversion : but in Speaking of
this new play afterwards they had no name for
it : whilst they were thinking of a name for it>
H '"■* exclaimed, " The Gorgon ! " It wji^
immediately agreed that it was a good name
fof the play, and H ■■ »> upon this occasion wa^

6

Attention* l%^

perfectly intelligible, without expressing all the
intermediate ideas.

Good judges form an accurate estimate of the
abilities of those who converse with them, by
what they omit, as well as by what they say. If
any one can show that he also has been in Ar-
cadia, he is sure of being well received without
producing minutes of his journey. In the same
manner we should judge of children : if they
arrive; at certain conclusions in reasoning, we
ratay be satisfied that they have taken all the
necessary previous steps. We need not question
their attention upon subjects where they give
proofs of invention ; they must have remembered
well, or they could not invent ; they must have
attended well, or they could not have reuoeHa-
beired^ Nothing wearies a quick child, more
than to be forced slowly to retrace his own
thoughts, and to repeat the words of a discourse
tch. p^fOve that he has listened to it. A tutor,
who is slow in understanding the id^as of his
vi-yacious pupil, gives Uira so much trouble and
pMPj that} hie grows silent from finding it not
worth his while to speak. It is for this reason
that children appear stupid and silent with some
people, and; sprightly and talkative with others*
TllQse who hope- to talk to children with any
effect miist> as Rousseau observes, be able to hear
as weli a^ to speak. M. de Segrais, who was

126 Practical Education.

deaf, was much in the right to dedine bein^
preceptor to the Duke de Maine. A deaf pre-
ceptor would certainly make a child dumb.

To win the attention of lively children we
must sometimes follow them in their zigzag
course, and even press them to the end of their
train of thought. They will be content when
they have obtained a full hearing ; then they will
have leisure to discover that what they were in
such haste to utter was not so well worth saying
as they imagined ; that their bright ideas often,
vvhen steadily examined, fade into absurdities.

'^ Where does this path lead to ? Can't we
" get over this stile ? May I only go into this
'' wood ? " exclaims an active child, when he is
taken out to walk. Every path appears more
delightful than the straight road ; but let him
try the paths, they will perhaps end in dis-
appointment, and then his imagination will be
corrected. Let him try his own experiments,
then he will be ready to try yours ; and if yours
succeed better than his own, you will secure his
confidence. After a child has talked for some
time, till he comes to the end of his ideas, then
he will perhaps listen to what you have to say,
and if he finds it better than what he has been
saying himself, he will voluntarily give ybu his
attention the next time you begin to speak.

Lively children are peculiarly susceptible of
I

Attention. 12?

blame and praise; we have, therefore, great
power over their attachment, if we manage
these excitements properly. These children
should not be praised for their happy hits, their
first glances* should not be extolled ; but, on
the contrary, they should be rewarded with uni-
versal approbation when they give proofs of pa-
tient industry, when they bring any thing to
perfection. No one can bring any thing to per-
fection without long continued attention ; and
industry and perseverance presuppose attention.
Proofs of any of these qualities may therefore
satisfy us ; we need not stand by to see the atten-
tion exercised, the things produced are sufficient
evidence. Buffon tells us that he wrote his
Epoques de la Nature over eighteen times before he
could perfect it to his taste. The high finish of
his composition is sufficient evidence to intelli-
gent readers, that he exerted long continued at-
tention upon the work ; they do not require to
have the eighteen copies produced.

Bacon supposes that for every disease of the
mind specific remedies might be found in appro-
priate studies and exercises. Thus for " bird-
'^ wit ted" children he prescribes the study of
mathematics, because in mathematical studies the
attention must be fixed ; the least intermission of

* Jperpies.

128 Practical Education,

thought breaks the whole chain of reason ing,
their labour is lost, and they must begin their
demonstration again. This principle is excel-
lent; but to apply it advantageously, we should
choose moments when a mathematical demon-
stration is interesting to children, else we have
not sufficient motive to excite them to com-
mence the demonstration ; they will perceive
that they lose all their labour if their attention
is interrupted ; but how shall we make thenm
begin to attend ; there are a variety of subjeiet^
which are interesting to children, to which we
aoay apply Bacon's principle; for instance, a
child isi eager to hear a story which you are
going to tell him; you may exercise his atten-
tion by your manner of telling this story : yotv
may employ with advantage the beautiful figure
of speech called suspension : but you must take care
that the hop© which is long deferred be at last
gratified. The young critics will look back
when your story is finished, and will examine
whether their attention has been wasted, or whe-
thci? all the particulars to which it was directed
were essential. Though in amusing stories we
recommend the figure called suspension,* we do
not recommend its use in explanations. Our
explanations should be put into as few words as

* " Deinology, or Advice, to a Young Barrister."

'Attention. 12^

possible: the closer the connexion of ideas the
better. When we say, allow time to understand
your explanations, we mean, allow time between
each idea, do not fill up the interval with words.
Never by way of gaining time pay in sixpences j
this is the last resource of a bankrupt.

We formerly observed that a preceptor, in
his first lessons on any new subject, must submit
to the drudgery of repeating his tertns and his
reasoning, until these are sufficiently familiar to
his pupils. He must, however, proportion the
number of his repetitions to the temper and
habits of his pupils, else he will weary instead
of strengthening the attention. When a thing
is clear, let him never try to make it clearer ;
when a thing is understood, not a word more
of exemplification should be added. To mark,
precisely the moment when the pupil understands
what is said, the moment when he is master of
the necessary ideas, and, consequently, the mo-
ment when repetition should cease, is, perhaps,
the most difficult thing in the art of teaching.
The countenance, the eye, the voice, and
manner of the pupil, mark this instant to iti
observing preceptor; but a preceptor, who is
absorbed in his own ideas, will never think of
looking in his pupil's face, he will go on with
his routine of explanation, whilst his once lively,
attentive pupil, exhibits opposite to him the

VOL. I. K

^^9 Practical Education,

picture of stupified fatigue. Quick, intelligent
children, who have frequently found that lessons
are reiterated by a patient but injudicious tutor,
will learn a careless mode of listening at in-
tervals ; they will say to themselves, ^'' Oh, I
" shall hear tliis again !" And if any stray thought
comes across their minds, they will not scruple
to amuse themselves, and will afterwards ask for
a repetition of the words or ideas which they
missed during the excursion of fancy. When
they hear the warning advertisement of ^^ cer-
*^ tainly for the last time this season," they will
deeni it time enough to attend to the performance.
To cure them of this presumption in favour of our
patience, and of their own superlative quickness,
we should press that quickness to its utmost
speed. Whenever we call for their attention,
let it be on subjects highly interesting or
amusing, and let us give them but just sufficient
time with their fullest exertion to catch our
words and ideas. As these quick gentlemen
are proud of their rapidity of apprehension,
this method will probably succeed ; they will
dread the disgrace of not understanding what is
said, and they will feel that they cannot under-
stand unless they exert prompt, vigorous, and
unremitted Mtention.

The duchess of Kingston used to complain
that she could never acquire knowledge, because
1

J

Attentidn: tsi

she never could meet with any body who
coulil teach her any thing " in two words." Hier*
grace felt the samre sort of impatience which was^
expressed by the tyrant who expected to find a'
rbyal road to geometry.

Those who believe themselves endowed witli^'
genius expect i6 And a royal road in every
science, shorter and less laborious than' the'
b^ateti paths bf iridiistry. Their expectations
are usually in proportion to their ignorance;
they see to the summit only of one hill, arid they'
do * not suspect the Alp^ that will arise as they
advance : but as' children become less presump-
tuous, as they acquire more knowledge', we'
may bear with their juvenile impatience, whilst"
we take measures to enlarge continually their'
sphere of information. We should not, however^
humour the attention of young people, by*^^
t&ichin^ them always in the rii ode which vv6 •
khow' suits their temper best. Vivacious pupils^
should from time to time be accustomed t6^
ail ekact enumeration of particulars ; and w^'
should take opportunities to convince them,
that an orderly connexion of proofs, and a minute '
observation of apparent trifles are requisite to
produce the lively descriptions, great discoveries^'
and happy inventions, which pupils of this^
disposition are ever prone to admire with eri-'
thusiasm. They* wiH learn not to pas^ over 0/ J'

K 2

132 Pj^actical Education.

things, when they perceive that these may lead to
something nezv ; and they will even submit to
sober attention, when thev feel that this is
necessary to the rapidity of genius. In the
*^ Curiosities of Literature" there has been
judiciously preserved a curious instance of literary
patience ; the rough draught of that beautiful
passage in Pope's translation of the IHad which
describes the parting of Hector and Andromache.
The lines are in Pope's hand-writing, and his
numerous corrections appear; the lines which
seem to the reader to have been struck off
at a single happy blow are proved to have
been touched and retouched with the indefati-
gable attention of a great writer. The frag-
ment, with all its climax of corrections, was
shown to a young poet of nine years old, as
a practical lesson, to prove the necessity of
patience to arrive at perfection. Similar examples
from real life should be produced to young
people at proper times ; the testimony of men
of acknowledged abilities, of men whom they
have admired for genius, will come with pecu-
liar force in favour of application. Parents
well acquainted with literature, cannot be at a
loss to find apposite illustrations. The life of
Franklin is an excellent example of persevering
indiistry ; the variations in different editions of
Voltaij:e'« dr?fmatic poetry, and in Pope's works,

Attention, 133

are worth examining. All Sir Joshua Reynolds's
eloquent academical discourses enforce the
doctrine of patience ; when he w^nts to prove to
painters the value of continual energetic atten-
tion, he quotes from Livy the character of
Philopoemen, one of the ablest generals of anti-
quity. So certain it is that the same principle
pervades all superior minds : whatever may be
their pursuits, attention is the avowed primary
cause of their success. These examples from
the dead should be well supported by examples
from amongst the living : in common life, occur-
rences can frequently be pointed out, in which
attention and application are amply rewarded
with success.

It will e^ncourage those who are interested in
education, to observe, that two of the most
difficult exercises of the mind can by practice be
rendered familiar, even by persons whom we
do not consider as possessed of superior talents.
\1 Abstraction and transition — abstraction, the
power of withdrawing the attention from all ex-
ternal objects, and concentrating it upon some
particular set of ideas, we admire as one of the
most difficult exercises of the philosopher.
Abstraction was formerly considered as such a
difficult and painful operation, that it required
perfect silence and solitude ; many ancient phi^
losophers quarrelled with their senses and shut

,1^4 Practical Education.

theniselves up in caves, to secure the^ir attention
from the distraction caused by external objects.
But moderp* philosophers have discovered, that
neither caves nor lan^ps are essentijil Xo the full
, and successful exercise of their mental po\v^r^.
JPersqns of ordinary abilities, tradesmen and
shopkeepers, in the midst of the tumult of a
public city, in the noise of rumbling carts and
rattling carriages, amidst the voices of a multitude
of people talking upon various subjects, amidst
the provoking interruptions of continual questions
and answers, in the broad glare of a hot sun,
can command and abstract their attention so far
us to calculate yards, ells, and nails, to cast up
long sums in addition right to a farthing, and to
make out multifarious bills with quick and
unerring precision. Jn almost all the dining^
rpoms at Vienna, as a late jtraveller ^ informs us,
" a bill of fare, containing a vast collection of
*^ dishes, is written out, and the prices are affixed
^^ to each article. As the people of Vienna are
~*\ fond of variety, the calculation at the conclusion
** of a repast would appear somewhat embarrass-
*Mng ; this, however, is (done by mechanical
" habit with grpat speed ; the custom is for the
** party who has dined to pap^e the fishes, and

*Y.Condi)l^(?'5 4j|^gppg5i:,

t Mr. Ow^n. . ,. ,

Attention. 135

*' the quantity of bread and wine. The keller
<^ who attends on this occasion follows every
" article you name with the sum, which he adds
" to the calculation, and the whole is performed,
" to whatever amount, without ink or paper. It
" is curious to hear this ceremony, which is
*^ muttered with great gravity, yet performed
" with accuracy and dispatch."

We coolly observe, when we read these things,
" Yes, this is all habit ; any body, who had
*^ used himself to it, might do the same things.^
Yet the very same power of abstracting the atv
tention, when employed upon scientific and
literary subjects, would excite our astonishment,
and we should perhaps immediately attribute
it to superior original genius. We may surely
educate children to this habit of abstracting the
attention, which we allow depends entirely
upon practice. When we are very much inte*
rested upon any subject we attend to it exclu*
sively, and without any eflbrt we surmount alt
petty interposing interruptions. When we are
reading an interesting book, twenty people may*
converse round about us, without our hearing '
one word that they say; when tvfe are m a
crowded playhouse, the moment we become Jri-^
terested in the play, the audience vanish front
©wr sight, and in the midst of various nfoisei^ wj^ ^
fe«ar only the voices of the actors.

,ja6 Practical Education,

In thfe sam^ manner children show, by their
eager looks and their unaffected absence to all
external circumstances, when they are' thoroughly
interested by any story that is told with elo-
^quence suited to their age. . When we would
I'^ach them to attend in the midst of noise and
lljiterruptions, we should therefore begin by
talking to them about things which we are sure
will please them ; by degrees we may speak on
iess captivating subjects, when we perceive
that their habit of beginning to listen with an
expectation of pleasure is formed. Whenever
a child happens to be intent upon any favourite
amusement, or when he is reading any very
entertaining book, we may increase the busy
hum round him, we may make what bustle we
please, he will probably continue attentive ; it is
useful therefore to give him such amusements
and such books when there is a noise oi bustle in
the room, because then he will learn to disregard
all interruptions ; and when this habit is formed,
he may even rcE^d less amusing books in the
game company without being interrupted by the
usual noises,
» f. The power of abstracting our attention is uni^
j versally allowed to be necessary to the success-^
' ful labour of the understanding; but we may
farther observe, that this abstraction is charac-
teristic in sofne p^ses of heroism as well as of

Attentio7i,.^ . „ 137

genius, Charles the Twelfth and Archimedes
were very different men, yet both in similar
circumstances gave similar proofs of their un-
common power of abstracting their attention,
^^ What has the bomb to do with what you are
" writing to Sweden?" said the hero to his pale
secretary when a. bomb burst through the roof of
his apartment — and he continued to dictate his
letter, Archin^edes went on with his demon-
stration in the midst of a siege, and when a bru-
tal soldier entered with a drawn sword, the phi-
losopher only begged he might solve his problem
before he was put to death.

Presence of mind in danger, which is usually
supposed to depend upon our quick perception
of all the present circumstances, frequently de-
mands a total abstraction of our thoughts. In
danger, fear is the motive which excites our
exertions, but from all the ideas that fear natu-
rally suggests, we must abstract our attention,
or we shall not act with courage or prudence.
Jn proportion to the violence of our terror our
voluntary exertion must be great to withdraw
our thoughts from the present danger, and to
recollect the means of escape. In some cases,
where the danger has been associated with the
use of certain methods of escape, we use these
without deliberation, and consequently without
*r>y effort of attention ; as when we see any

138 Practical Education.

thing catch fire we instantly throw water upon
the flames to extinguish them. But in new
situations, where we have no mechanical cou-
rage, we must exert much voluntary, quick, ab-
stract attention, to escape from danger.
^i^When Lee the poet was confined in Bedlam^
a friend went to visit him, and finding that he
could converse reasonably, or at least reasonably
for a poet, imagined that Lee was cured of his
madness. The poet offered to show him Bed-
lam. They went over this melancholy medical
prison, Lee moralising philosophically enough
all the time to keep his companion perfectly at
case. At length they ascended together to the
top of the building, and as they were both look-
ing down from the perilous height, Lee seized
his friend by the arm, " Let us immortalise our-
^^ selves !*' he exclaimed ; *^ let us take this
" leap. We'll jump down together this instant."
^* Any man could jump down," said his friend,
coolly ; ^^ we should not immortalise ourselves
*^ by that leap ; but let us go down, and try if
*^ we can jump up again." The madman, struck
with the idea of a more astonishing leap than
that which he bad himself proposed, yielded
to this new impulse, and his friend rejoiced to
see him run down stairs full of a new project iot
securing immortality.
. Lee's friend upon this occasion showed rather

absence than presence of mind : bef(^re be could
have invented the happy answer th^t saved bis
Jife, be must have abstracted his . mind from the
passion of fear ; he must have rapidly turned his
attention upon a variety of ideas unconnected
.by any former associations with the exciting
motive^ — FaUing from a height — fractured skulls
—certain death— impossibility of reasoning or
^ycestling with a madnjan. This was the train
pf thought which )ve might naturally exp^t to
^•ise in such a situation, but from all these the
man of presence of mind turned away his atten-
tion ; he must have directed his thoughts in a
jcontrary hue : first he must have thought of the
pieans of saving himself, of some argument likely
tp persuade a madman, of some argument pecu-
liarly suited to Lee's imagination, and applicable
to his situation ; he must at this moment have
considered that alarming situation without thinks
ing of his fears ; for the interval in which all
these ideas passed in his mind must have been
so short that he could not have had leisure to
cpmbat fear ; if any of the ideas associated with
that passion l)ad interrupted his reasonings, he
w^ould iiot liaye invented his answer in time to
ji^ye ^avefi hi^ )ife.

We canj:xot f9rese^ pn w\\^i occasions presence
I of mind may be wanted, but we may by educa-
I tion give that general command of abstract atten-

140 Practical Education.

tion, which is essential to its exercise in all cir-
cumstances.

Transition of thought, the power of turning
attention quickly to different subjects or em-
ployments, is another of those mental habits,
which in some cases we call genius, and which
n others we perceive depends entirely upon
practice. A number of trials in one newspaper,
upon a variety of unconnected subjects, once
struck our eye, and we saw the name of a cele-
brated lawyer* as counsel in each cause. We
could not help feeling involuntary admiration at
that versatility of genius, which could pass from
a fractional calculation about a London chaldron
of coals to the Jamaica laws of insurance ; from
the bargains of a citizen to the divorce of a fine
lady ; from pathos to argument ; from arithmetic
to wit ; from cross examination to eloquence.
For a moment we forgot our sober principles,
and ascribed all this versatility of mind to natu-
ral genius ; but upon reflection we recurred to
the belief, that this dexterity of intellect was not
bestowed by nature. We observe in men who
have no pretensions to genius similar versatility
of mind as to their usual employments. The
daily occupations of Mr. Elwes's huntsman were
as various and incongruous, and required as

* Mr. Erskine— The Star.

Attention. 141

quick transitions of attention, as any that can
be imagined.

" At * four o'clock he milked the cows ; then
" got breakfast for Mr. Ehves and friends ; then,
^* sHpping on a green coat, he hurried into the
" stable, saddled the horses, got the hounds out
'* of the kennel, and away they went, into the
'^ field. After the fatigues of hunting, he re-
" freshed himself by rubbing down two or three
" horses as quickly as he could ; then running
" into the house to lay the cloth, and wait at
** dinner ; then hurrying again into the stable to
" feed the horses, diversified with an interlude
** of the cows again to milk, the dogs to feed,
^' and eight hunters to litter down for the night.'*
Mr. Elwes used to call this huntsman an idle
dog, who wanted to be paid for doing nothing.

We do not mean to require any such rapid
daily transitions in the exercise of attention from
our pupils ; but we think that much may be
Vdone to improve versatility of mind by a judi-
cious arrangement of their occupations. When
we are tired of smelling a rose, we can smell a
carnation with pleasure ; and when the sense of
smell is fatigued, we can look at the beautiful
colours of the flower with delight. When we
are tired of thinking upon one subject, we can

*. V. Life of John Elwes, Esq. by E. Xopham.

Ik^ Practkal Education,

^fe4id to anblher ; when our memory is fatigued,
the exercise of the imagination entertains us';
ahd vvhfen We are weary of reasoning, we can
actiuse odi^elves with wit and humour. Men,
wto have attidnded much to the cultivation of
theii- raindi scjeiri tb have felt all this, arid the/
h'av^ kejpt^ sortie subordinate t^ste as a refresh-
ilientaftei^ their labours. Descartes went from
the systerii of the world to his flower-garden ; Ga-
lileo used to read Ariosto; and the metaphysical
Dr. Clarke recovered himself from abstraction by
jumping over chairs and tables. The learned and'
indefatigable chancellor d'Aguesseau declared,
that change of employment was the only re-
creation he ever knew. Even Montaigne, who
found his recreation in playing with his cat, edu-
cated himself better than those are educated who
go from intense study to complete idleness. It
has'beeu'very wisely recommended by Mr. Locke,
that young people should early be taught some
mechanical employ ment> or some agreeable art,
to which they may recur for relief when they
are tired by mental application.

Dbctor Darwin supposes that " animal mo-
"tion'g, orcotifigurations of the organs of senfsej
*^' confstitute our ideas i* The fatigue," he oW-^
serves; ^' that follows a continued attention^ of

* Zoottdmia,- vol. i. p. 21, 24'.»

Attention. t43r

^' the mind to one object, is relieved by chang-
^^ ing the subject of our thoughts, as the conti-
*^ nued movement of one hmb is reHeved by
*^ moving another in its stead." Dr. Darwin
has farther suggested a tempting subject of ex-
periment in his theory of ocular spectra, to
which we refer ingenious preceptors. Many
useful experiments in education might be tried
upon the principles w^hich are there suggested.
We dare not here trust ourselves to speculate
upon this subject, because we are not at present
provided with a sufficient number of facts to ap-
ply theory to practice. If we could exactly dis-
cover how to arrange mental employments so as
J to induce actions in the antagonist faculties of
il the mind, we might relieve it from fatigue in the
; i same manner as the eye is relieved by change of
colour. By pursuing this idea, might we not
hope to cultivate the general power of attention
to a degree of perfection hitherto unknown ?

We have endeavoured to show how, by dif-
ferent arrangements and proper excitations, a
preceptor may acquire that command over the
kttention of his pupils, which is absolutely es-
Bential to successful instruction; but we must
' recollect, that when the years commonly devoted
to education are ovei, when young people are
no longer under the care of a preceptor, they will
continue to feel the advantages of a command of

144 Practical Education.

attention, whenever they mix in the active busi-
ness of life, or whenever they apply to any pro-
fession, to hterature, or science. Their atten- I
tion must then be entirely voluntary ; they wilt •
have no tutor to excite them to exertion, no
nice habitual arrangements to assist them in their
daily occupations. It is of consequence, there^'N.
fore, that we should substitute the power of vo** ]
luntary, for the habit of associated attention.
With young children we depend upon particular
associations of place, time, and manner, upon
different sorts of excitation, to produce habits of
apphcation : but as our pupils advance in their
education, all these temporary excitements
should be withdrawn. Some large, but distant
object, some pursuit which is not to be re-
warded with immediate praise, but rather with
permanent advantage and esteem, should be held
out to the ambition of youth. All the arrange-
ments should be left to the pupil himself, all the
difficulties should be surmounted by his own in-
dustry, and the interest he takes in his own suc-
cess and improvement will now probably be a
sufficient stimulus; his preceptor will now ra«
ther be his partner than his master ; he should
rather share the labour than attempt to direct it :
this species of sympathy in study diminishes the
pain of attention, and gives an agreeable interest
even in the most tiresome researches. Wh«n a

Attention* I4S

young man perceives that his preceptor becdtne*
in this manner the companion of his cxertion^^
be loses all suspicion that he is compelled to^
inental labour ; it is improper to say loses ; foriti
a good education this suspicion need not evef
be created : he discovers, we shouW rather say^
that all the habits of attention which he has ac-*
quired are those which are useful to men as well
as to children, and he feels the advantage of hi^
cultivated powers on every fresh occasion. H6
will perceive, that young men who have been
ill educated cannot by any motive command
therr vigorous attention, and he will feel the
cause of his own superiority, when he comes td
any trial of skill with inattentive men of genius.

One of the arguments which Bayle uses, to
prove that fortune has a greater influence thati
prudence in the affairs of men, is founded upon
the common observation, that men of the best
abilities frequently find it impossible to recollect
in urgent circumstances what they have said or
done ; the things occur to them perhaps a mo*
ment after they alne past. The fact seems to he^
that they could not in the proper moment com*
mand their attention ; but this we should attri-
bute to the want of prudence in their early edu*-
cation. Thus, Bayle's argument does not iit^
this point of view prove any thing in favour of
fortune. Those who can best command their

vou T. L

146 Practical Edncatioiu

attention, in the greatest variety of circumstances,
have the most useful abilities ; without this
command of mind, men of genius, as they are
called, are helpless beings; w^ith it persons of
inferior capacity become valuable. Addison
trembled and doubted, and doubted and trem-
bled, when he was to write a common official
paper j and it is said, that he was absolutely
obliged to resign his place, because he could not
decide in time whether he should write a that
or ?i 'which. No business could have been trans-
acted by such an imbecile minister.
1^ To substitute voluntary for associated atten-
tion, we may withdraw some of the usually as-
ssociated circumstances, and increase the excite-
ment ; and we may afterwards accustom the
pupil to act from the hope of distant pleasures.
Unless children can be actuated by the view of
future distant advantage, they cannot be capable
of long continued application. We shall endea-
vour to explain how the value of distant plea-
sures can be increased, and made to act with
sufficient force upon the mind^ when we her&»
after speak of prudence and ceconomy.

1 It has been observed, that persons of wit and
jildgment have perhaps originally the same
powers, and that the difference in their cha-
racters arises from their thoughts having been
turned to different classes of objects. The man-

Attention.^ ^,. 147

ner in which we are first taught to observe, and
to reason, must in the first years of life decide
these habits. There are two methods of teach-
ing; one which ascends from particular facts to
general principles, the other which descends
from the general principles to particular facts;
one which builds up, another which takes to
pieces; the synthetic and the analytic method.
The words analysis and synthesis are frequently
misapplied, and it is difficult to write or to speak
long about these methods without confounding
them ; in learning or in teaching, we often use
them alternately. We first observe particulars,
then form some general idea of classification,
then descend again to new particulars, to observe
whether they correspond with our principle.
/ Children acquire knowledge, and their atten-
tion alternates from particular to general ideas,
exactly in the same manner. It has been re-
marked, that men who have begun by forming
suppositions, are inclined to adapt and to com-
press their consequent observations to the mea-
sure of their theories ; they have been negligent
in collecting facts, and have not condescended
to try experiments. This disposition of mind,
during a long period of time, retarded improve-
ment, and knowledge was confined to a few
peremptory maxims, and exclusive prmciples.
The necessity of collecting facts, and of trying

L2

148 Practiciil Education.

exp^Timcnts, was at length perceived, and in aU
the sciences this mode has lately prevailed ; con-
sequently, we have now on many subjects a
treasure of accumulated facts. We are, in edu-
I eating children, to put them in possession of all
f tfiis knowledge; and a judicious preceptor will
wish to know, not only how these facts can be
crammed speedily into his pupil's memory, but
what order of presenting them will be most ad-
vantageous to the understanding ; he will desire
itb cultivate his pupil's faculties, that he may
acquire new facts, and make ftew observations
after all the old ones have been arranged in his
mind.

By a judicious arraftgement of past experi-
ments, and by the rejection of what are useless,
an able instructor can show, in a small compass,
what it hag cost the labour of ages to accumu-
late; he may teach in a few hours what the most
ingenious pupil, left to his own random eflforts,
could not have learned in many years. It would
take up as much time to go over all the steps
which have been made in any science, as it ori-
ginally cost the first discoverers. Simply to re^
peat all the fruitless experiments which have
been made in chemistry, for instance, would pro-
bably employ the longest Hfe that ever was de-
voted to science ; nor would the individual have
got one step forwarder ; hfe would die, and witk

Atientm. U^

him his recapitulated knowledge ; neitl)er he nor
the world would be the better for it. It is our
I business to save children all this useless labour,
* and all this waste of the power of attention. ^
pupil, who is properly instructed, with the same
quantity of attention learns, perhaps, a hundred
times as much in the same time, as he could ac-
quire under the tuition of a learned preeeptcM-
ignorant in the art of teaching.

The analytic and synthetic methods of instruc-
\tion will both be found useful when judiciously
employed. Where the enumeration of particu-
lars fatigues the attention, we should in teaching
any science begin by stating the general prin-
ciples, and afterwards produce only the facts
essential to their illustration and proof. But
wherever we have not accumulated a sufficient
number of facts to be accurately certain of any
general principle, we must, however tedious the
task, enumerate all the facts that are known,
and warn the pupil of the imperfect state of the
science. All the facts must in this case be
stored up with scrupulous accuracy; we cannot
determine which are unimportant, and which
may prove essentially useful : this can be de-
cided only by future experiments. By thus
stating honestly to our pupils the extent of our
ignorance, as well as the extent of our know-
ledge, by thus directing attention to the imper-

e

150 Practical Education.

fections of science rather than to the study of
theories, we shall avoid the just reproaches
which have been thrown upon the dogmatic
vanity of learned preceptors.

*^ For as knowledges are now/' says Bacon,
" there is a kind of contract of error between the
" deliverer and receiver ; for he that delivereth
" knowledge desireth to deliver it in such a
*^ form as may be best believed, and not as may
" be best examined ; and he that receiveth
" knowledge desireth rather present satisfaction
*' than expectant inquiry ; and so rather not
^^ to doubt, than not to err; glory making the
^^ author not to lay open his weakness, and
^' sloth making the disciple not to know his
i*^^krength^'=* -.

-{HA, ^, mn$i^r* Bacon, vol. i. page 84-.

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Servants. 151

:5f|

CHAPTER IV

Servants.

JN OW, Master," * said a fond nurse to her
favourite boy, after having given him sugared
bread and butter for supper, *^ now, master,
"kiss me: wipe your mouth, dear, and go up
" to ^he drawing-room to mamma ; and when
*' mistress asks you what you have had for sup-
'* per, you*ll say, bread and butter, for you //ai^^
'" had bread and butter, you know, master."
'^ And sugar," said the boy ; ^' I must say bread
'' and butter and sugar, you know."

How few children would have had the cou-
rage to have added, " and sugar ! " How dange-
rous it is to expose them to such temptations!
The boy must have immediately perceived the
object of his nurse's casuistry. He must guess
that she would be blamed for the addition of
ithe sugar, else why should she wish to suppress

* Verbatim from what has been really said to a boy.

l^g, Practical Education*

the word ? His gratitude is engaged to his
nurse for running this risk to indulge him ; his
mother, by the force of contrast, appears a severe
person, who for no reason that he can com-
prehend, would deprive him of the innocent
pleasure of eatmg sugar. As to its making him
sick, he has eat it and he is not sick ; as to
its spoiling his teeth, he does not care about his
teeth, and he sees no immediate change in them :
therefore he concludes that his mother's orders
^re capricious, s^nd that his nurse loves him
hsetter th^n she does, because she gives him the
most pleasure. His honour and affection to-
wards his nurse are immediately set in opposition
to his duty to his mother. Wh^t a hopeful
beginning in education ! What a number of
d^Jigerous ideas may be given by a single word!
*/i^Tfe?5= taste fpr sugared bread and butter is
ftpaiiii pver, but servants have it in their power
to excite other tastes with premature and fac-
^itipus enthusiasm. Th^ waiting-maid can
inSipire a taste for dres^ ; the footman, a taste for
gaw^g ; the coachman and groom, for horses
^Ud equipage ; and the butler for wine. The
^(pplicity of children is not ^ defence to thena ;
,^di though they are totally ignorant of vice,
they ^re exposed to adopt the principles of
those with whom they live, even before they
can ^pply them to their ovyn conduct.

Servants, 153

The young son of a lady of quality, a boy of
six or §even years old, addressed with great sim-^
plicity the following speech to a lady who
visited his mother :-r-

Bo]/, Miss N-^-— , I wigb you could find
iomebody, when you go to London, who would
keep you. It's a very good thing to be k^pt.

Lady* What do you mean, my dear?

Boy* Why it's when^— you know, when a
person's kept^ they have every thing found for
them ; their friend saves them all trouble, you
know. They have a carriage and diamonds,
and every thing they want. I wish somebody
would keep you.

Lady, laughing. But I'm afraid nobody
fvould. Do you think any body would ?

BQyy after ^ pause. Why yes, I think. Sir -— •
(naming a gentleman whose name had at this
time been much talked of in a public trial)
would be as likely as any body.

The same boy talked familiarly of phaetons
and gigs, and wished that he was grown up, that
he might drive four horses in hand. It is obvi.
ous that these ideas were put into the boy's head
by the servants with whom he associated. 1: >

W^ithout supposing them to be profligate, «eiv
vants, from their situation, from all that they
see of the society of their superiors, and from the
«arly prejudices of their own education, learn

154 Practical Education.

to admire that wealth and rank to which tfiey
are bound to pay homage. The luxuries and
follies of fashionable life they mistake for hap-
piness; they measure the respect they pay to
strangers by their external appearance ; they
value their own masters and mistresses, by the
same standard ; and in their attachment there is
a necessary mixture of that sympathy which is
sacred to prosperity. Setting aside all interested
motives, servants love show and prodigality in
their masters ; they feel that they partake the
triumph, and they wish it to be as magnificent
as possible. These dispositions break out na-
turally in the conversation of servants with one
another; if children are suffered to hear them,
they will quickly catch the same tastes. But if
these ideas break out in their unpremeditated
gossiping with one another, how much more
strongly will they be expressed when servants
wish to ingratiate themselves into a child's affec-
tions by flattery! Their method of showing
attachment to a family is usually to exaggerate
in their consequence and grandeur; they depre-
'ciate all whom they imagine to be conrpetitors in
any respect with their masters, and feed and
foster the little jealousies which exist between
neighbouring families. The children of these
families are thus early set at variance ; and those
in the same family arc often taught, by the

1

I

Servants, 155

imprudence or malice of foolish servants, to
dislike and envy each other. In houses where
each child has an attendant, the attendants
regularly quarrel, and, out of a show of zeal,
make their young masters and mistresses parties
in their animosity. Three or four maids some-
times produce their little dressed pupils for a few
minutes to the Company in the drawing-room,
for the express purpose of seeing which shall
obtain the greatest share of admiration. This
competition^ which begins in their nurses* arms,
is continued by daily artifices through the whole
course of their nursery education. Thus the
emulation of children is rendered a torment to
them, their ambition is directed to absurd and
vile purposes, the understanding is perverted,
their temper is spoiled, their simplicity of mind,
and their capability of enjoying happiness, mate-
rially injured. '

The language and manners, the awkward and
vulgar tricks, which children learn in the society
of bad servants, are immediately perceived, and
disgust and shock well-bred parents. This is
an evil which is striking and disgraceful ; it is
more likely to be remedied than those which are
more secret and slow in their operation: the
habits of cunning, falsehood, envy, which lurk in
the temper, are not instantly visible to strangers ;
they do not appear the moment children are re«

\5f6 Practical Education,

viewed by parents ; they may remain for years
without notice or without care. The greatest
eare should be taken in the choice of servants
who are employed to attend upon children.

All these things have been said a hundred
times : and, what is more, they are universally
acknowledged to be true. It has passed into a
common maxim with all who reflect, and even
with all who speak upon the subject of educa-
tion, that " it is the worst thing in the world to
^^ leave children with servants." Notwithstand-
ing this, each person imagines that their servants
are lucky exceptions to the general rule. But,
if their qualifications were scrupulously exa-
mined, it is to be feared that many would not be
found competent to the trust that is reposed in
them. They may nevertheless be excellent ser-
vants, much attached to their masters and mis-
tresses, and sincerely desirous to obey their orders
in the management of their pupils ; but this is
not sufficient. In education it is not enough to
obey the laws, it is necessary to understand
them ; to understand the spirit, as well as the
letter of the law. The blind application pf
general maxims will never succeed : and can
that nice discrimination which is necessary to the
just use of good principles be expected from
those who have never studied the human mind,
who hav^ little motive for the study, whose

Servants, ' KJ"!

knowledge is technical, and who have never
had any liberal education ? Give, or attempt
to give, the best waiting-maid in London the
general maxim, " That pain should be associ*-
*^ ated with whatever we wish to make children
" ax'oid doing ; and that pleasure should be
" associated with whatever we wish that Ghil-
" dren should love to do ;" will the waiting-maid
understand this, even if you exchange the word
associated (or Joined? How will she apply her
new principle in practice? She will probably
translate it into " Whip the child when it is
" troublesome, and give it sweetmeats when it
•^ does as it is bid." With this compendious
system of tuition she is well satisfied, esj^ecially
as it contains nothing which is new to her un-
derstanding or foreign to her habits. But if
we should expect her to enter into the views of
a Locke or a Barbauld, would it not be at once
unreasonable and ridiculous ? Without expecting
too much, let the greatest care be taken in thei
choice of nursery-maids ; and let as little and!
for as short a time as possible be left to theiv
discretion.

; What has been said of the understanding and

dispositions of servants, relates only to servants

as they are now educated. Their vices and

their ignorance arise from the same causes, the

' want of education. They are not a separate

HB Practical Education.

cast in society, doomed to ignorance, or degraded
by inherent vice ; they are capable, they are^
desirous of instruction. Let them be well edu-^
cated,* and the difference in their conduct and
understanding will repay society for the trouble
of the undertaking. This education must begin
as early as possible ; let us not imagine that it is
practicable to change the habits of servants wha
are already educated, and suddenly to make
them fit companions in a family. They should
not in any degree be permitted to interfere with
the management of children, till their own
education has been radically reformed. Let
servants be treated with the utmost kindness,
let their situations be made as happy as possible,
let the reward of their services and attachment
be as liberal as possible ; but reward with justice ;
do not sacrifice your children to pay your debt^
Familiarity between servants and children cannot
permanently increase the happiness of either
party. Children, who have early lived with
servants, as they grow up are notoriously apt to
become capricious and tyrannical masters. A
boy who has been used to treat a footman as
•^:* An institution for the education of attendants upon chil-
dren would be of the highest utility. ,. :#

Mr. E had once an intention of educating forty chiK

dren for this purpose ; from amongst whom he proposed ta
select eight or ten as masters for future schools upon the same
plan. _ ■ * ' • " .' '''''■

Serjeants. 159

his playfellow, cannot suddenly command from
him that species of deference, which is com-
pounded of habitual respect for the person, and
conventional submission to his station ; the
young master must therefore effect a change in
his footman's manner of thinking and speaking
by violent means; he must extort that tribute
of respect which he has so long neglected to
claim, and to which, consequently, his right is
disputed. =*^ He is sensible, that his superiority
is merely that of situation, and he therefore
exerts his dormant prerogatives with jealous
insolence. No master is so likely to become
the tyrant of his valet-de-chambre, as he who is
conscious that he never can appear to him a
hero. No servant feels the yoke of servitude
more galling than he who has been partially
emancipated, who has lost his habits of " proud
" subordination, and his taste for dignified subr
*^ mission." *j~

Children should never be suffered to speak
imperiously to their attendants ; they will na*
turally imitate the language and manners of
their parents ; and if they always see them treat
their servants with kindness, there is not much
danger of their becoming tyrannical. There is,
however, a great deal of difference between

* V. the Comedy of Wild Oats. f Burkc

j6d Practical Education,

treating servants vvith kindness and with fami-
liarity. The species of separation which is ne-
cessary between servants and children, in a well
regulated family, should not be the effect of
pride, but simply of prudence.

■}y Every body readily disclaims the idea of letting

^ children live with servants ; but, besides the
exceptions in favour of particular individuals^
there is yet another cause of the difference
between theory and practice upon this subject;
Time is left out of the consideration ; people
forget that life is made up of days and hours ;
and they by no means think, that letting chil-
dren pass several hours every day with servants
fcas any thing to do with the idea of living with

' them. We must contract this latitude of ext
|>ression. '->'-. i

1 Till children are four or five years old, they
t5aYmeit dress or imdress themselves, or, if they
attempt it, they may learn careless habits, which
in girls are particularly to be avoided. It is of
consequence that the maid servants who attend
young ladies should be perfectly neat both from
habit and taste. Children observe exactly the
tttanner in which every thing is done for them,
and have the wish, even before they have the
power, to imitate what they see; they love
order, if they are accustomed to it, and if their
first -attempts at arrangeiiient are not made irk-

Servants. l6l

sortie by itrjudicious mariagfemehf. Whait they
see done evefy day in a partictilar tfiiihner th^y
learn to think part of the business of the day,
and they are uneasy if any of the fights of clean-
liness are forgotten ; the transition frotti this un-
^asine^s, to the desire of exerting themselves,
is soon ma(ie, particularly if they sire sotnetinb'^^
left to feel the inconveniences of being helpless.
This should, and can be done, withotrt affectai-
tion. A maid cannot be always ready the in-
stant she is wanted to atten'd upoii them ; the^
should not be waited upon as being masters and
fnisses, they should b6 assisted as beiiig helpless.*
They will not feel their vanity flattered by this
attendance ; and if the maid be not suffered to
amuse them, fhey will be ambitious of inde-
pendence, and they wilt soon be proud of doing
every thing for themselves : the sooner they can
dress themselves, the sooner will they be in a
course of reasonable education.
y Another circumstance, which keeps children
long in subjection to servants, is flieir not being
able to wield a knife, fork, or spoon, with' de-
cent dexterity. Such habits are taught to them
by the careless maids w^ho feed them, that they
cannot for rhany years be produced even at tlie
side-table without m\icli iriconvenierice, and

^ KdussBau.

VOL. I. M

162 Practical Education,

constant anxiety. If this anxiety in a mother
were to begin a little sooner, it need never be
intense ; patient care in feeding children neatly
at first will save many a bitter reprimand after-
wards ; their little mouths and hands need not
be disgusting at their meals, and their nurses
had better take care not to let them touch what
is disagreeable, instead of rubbing their lips
rudely with a rough napkin, by way of making
them love to have their mouths clean. These
minutiae must, in spite of didactic dignity, be
noticed, because they lead to things of greater
consequence ; they are well worth the attention
of a prudent mother or governess. If children
are early taught to eat with care, they will not
from false shame desire to dine * with the vulgar
indulgent nursery-maid, rather than with the
fastidious company at their mother s table. Chil-
dren should first be taught to eat with a spoon
what has been neatly cut for them ; afterwards
they should cut a little meat for themselves
towards the end of dinner, when the rage of
hunger is appeased; they will then have " leisure
" to be good." The several operations of learn-
ing to eat with a spoon, to cut and to eat with
a knife and fork, will become easy and habitual if
sufiicicnt time be allowed.

* V, Sarcho Panza. -^

Serjeants, l63

Several children in a family, who were early
attended to in all these little particulars, were
produced at table when they were four or five
years old ; they suffered no constraint, nor were
they ever banished to the nursery lest company
should detect their evil habits. Their eyes and
ears were at liberty during the time of dinner,
and instead of being absorbed in the contempla-
tion of their plates, or at war with themselves
and their neighbours, they could listen to con-
versation, and were amused even whilst they
were eating. Without meaning to assert, with
Rousseau, that all children are naturally gluttons
or epicures, we must observe that eating is their^,
first great and natural pleasure ; this pleasure
should therefore be entirely at the disposal of
those who have the care of their education ; it
should be associated with the idea of their tu-
tors or governesses. A governess may perhaps
disdain to use the same means to make herself
beloved by a child as those which are employed
by a nursery-maid ; nor is it meant that children
should be governed by their love of eating.
Eating need not be made a reward, nor should
we restrain appetite as a punislLment ; praise
and blame, and a variety of other excitements,
must be preferred when we want to act upon
the heart or understanding. All that is here
meant to be pointed out, is, that the mere phy-

M 2

l64 Practical Education.

sical pleasure of eating should not be associated
in the minds of children with servants; it
should not be at the disposal of servants, be-
cause they may in some degree balance by this
pleasure the other motives which a tutor may
wish to put in action. " Solid pudding," as
well as " empty praise/' should be in the gift
of the preceptor.

Besides the pleasures of the table, there are
many others which usually are associated early
with servants. After children have been pent
in a close formal drawing-room, motionless and
mute, they are frequently dismissed to an apart-
ment where there is no furniture too fine to be
touched with impunity, where there is ample
space, where they may jump and sing, and make
as much noise as can be borne by the much-en-
during ear-drum of^ the nursery-maid. Children
think this insensibility of ear a most valuable
qualification in any person ; they have no sym-
pathy with more refined auditory nerves^ and
they prefer the company of those who are to
them the best hearers. A medium between their
taste and that of their parents should in this in-
stance be struck ; parents should not insist upon
eternal silence, and children should not be suf-
fered to make mere noise essential to their enter-
tainment. Children should be encouraged to
talk at proper times, and should have occupations

Servants. 1 65

provided for them when they are required to be
still ; by these means it will not be a restraint to
them to stay in the same room with the rest of
the family for some hours in the day. At other
times they should have free leave to run about
either in rooms where they cannot disturb others,
or out of doors; in neither case should they be
with servants. Children should not be sent out
to walk with servants.

After they have been poring over their les-
sons, or stiffening under the eye of their precep-
tors, they are frequently consigned to the ready
footman ; they cluster round him for their hats^
their gloves, their little boots and whips, and all
the well known signals of pleasure. The hall
door bursts open, and they sally forth under the
interregnum of this beloved protector to enjoy
life and liberty; all the natural, and all the facti-
tious ideas of the love of liberty are connected
with this distinct part of the day; the fresh air —
the green fields — the busy streets — the gay shops
— the variety of objects which the children see
and hear — the freedom of their tongues — the joys
of bodily exercise, and of mental relaxation,
all conspire to make them prefer the period of
the day, which they spend with the footman, to
any other in the four and twenty hours. The
footman sees, and is flattered by this; he is there-
fore assiduous to please, and piques himself
lipon being more indulgent than the hated pre-

l66 Pi^actical Education.

ceptor. Servants usually wish to make them-
selves beloved by children ; can it be wondered
at if they succeed, when we consider the power
that is thrown into their hands ?

In towns, children have no gardens, no place
where they can take that degree of exercise
which is necessary for their health ; this tempts
their parents to trust them to servants, when
they cannot walk with them themselves ; but is
there no individual in the family, neither tutor,
nor governess, nor friend, nor brother, nor sister,
who can undertake this daily charge ? Cannot
parents sacrifice some of their amusements in
town, or cannot they live in the country ? If
none of these things can be done, without hesi-
tation they should prefer a public to a private
education. In these circumstances they cannot
educate their children at home ; they had much
better not attempt it, but send them at once to
school.

In the country arrangements may easily be
,inade, which will preclude all those little dan-
gers which fill a prudent parentis mind with
anxiety. Here children want the care of no
servant to walk out with them ; they can have
gardens, and safe places for exercise allotted to
them. In rainy weather they can have rooms
apart from the rest of the family ; they need not
be cooped up in an ill-contrived house, where
servants are perpetually in the\^ way.

I

Sei^vants. l67

Attention to the arrangement of a house is of
material consequence. Children's rooms should
not be passage rooms for servants ; they should,
on the contrary, be so situated, that servants
cannot easily have access to them, and cannot
on any pretence of business get the habit of
frequenting them. Some fixed employment
should be provided for children, which will
keep them in a different part of the house at
those hours when servants must necessarily be
in their bedchambers. There will be a great ad-
vantage in teaching children to arrange their own
rooms, because this will prevent the necessity of
servants being for any length of time in their
apartments ; their things will not be mislaid ;
their playthings will not be swept away or
broken ; no little temptations will arise to iisk
questions from servants ; all necessity, and all
opportunity of intercourse, will thus be cut off.
Children should never be sent with messages to
servants, either on their own business, or on
other people's ; if they are permitted at any
times, except when the person who has the care
of their education is present, to speak to them,
they will not distinguish what times are proper,
and what are improper.

Servants have so much the habit of talking to
children, and think it such a proof of good na-
ture to be interested about them, that it will be

I

)g§ Practical ^(iucation.

^jfpcijlt ^9> Kiake Xhpxi^ si^b^iit to this total silence
^nd sppara^jon. fh^ certainty, tliat tliey ^hall
lose their places if they bre^k through the regur
^a|ipns of the family, will, however, be a strong
HiQtiye, provided always that their places are agree-
able ^nd advantagequs ; j|nd parents should be;
absolutely strict in this particular- What is thq
loss qf i^^ service of a good groQin, of a good
butler, compared with the dangf^r pf spoiling a
child ? It may be feared that some secret inter-
cpur«e should be carried or^ ti^tween children
arid sprv^nts ; but this wjll be lessened by the
^rra^ngeme^ts in the house which we have nven-:
tioned, and by carq in a mother or governess to
know exactly where children are, and what they
s^^ doing every hour of the day ; this need not
fee ^ daily anxiety ; for when certain hours have
opce been fixed for certain occupations, habit is
our friend, and \ye cannot have a safer. There
\^ this great advantage in measures of precaui
\^f^ and prevention, that they diminish tempta-
tion, at the same time that they strengthen the
habits of obedience.

Other civGuip3stances will deter servants from
running any hazard themselv^si; tji^y will not
be so foild of children who dp not live with them ;
^ey will consider them as beings moving in
a different sphere. Children who are at ease

vv.itJtii \^q\y p^^nts, and happy in their company,

5

Sm^ants. 360

will not seek inferior society; this will be attri-
buted to pride by common servants, who will
not like them for this reserve. So much the
better. Children who are encouraged to con-
verse about every thing that interests them, will
naturally tell their mothers if any one talks to
them ; a servant's speaking to them would be an
extraordinary event to be recorded in the his-
tory of the day. The idea that it is dishonour-
able to tell tales should never be put into their
minds ; they will never be spies upon servants,
nor should they keep their secrets. Thus, as
there is no faith expected from the children, the
servants will not trust them ; they Vi ill be cer-
tain of detection, and will not transgress the laws.

Much of what has been said in this chapter
reUtes to the hi^er classes in society ; in other
ranks, where the mistress of a family is obliged
tq mix with the servants, the evil which we point
put m^y be prevented by her presence.

It may not be impertinent to conclude these
piinute precepts with assuring parents, that in a
l[^umerous family, where they have for above
twenty years been steadily observed, the servants
have lived long (from seven to twenty-four years)
in seeming content ; nor have they ever ap-
peared degraded in their own opinions, nor in
the eyes of their eqqals, Uy thi& reparation from
the qliildren pf thQ femily.

170 Practical Education.

CHAPTER V

Acquaintance,

A HE charming little dears!" exclaims a ci-
vil acquaintance the moment the children arc
introduced. " Won't you come to me, love?"
At this question, perhaps, the bashful child
backs towards its nurse, or its mother; but in
vain. Rejected at this trying crisis by its natu-
ral protectors, it is pushed forwards into the
middle of the circle, and all prospect of retreat
being cut off, the victorious stranger seizes upon
her little victim, whom she seats without a
struggle upon her lap. To win the affections
of her captive the lady begins by a direct appeal
to personal vanity. " Who curls this pretty hair
" of yours, my dear r Won't you let me look at
" your nice new red shoes? What shall I give
" you for that fine colour in your cheeks ? Let us
*^ see what we can find in my pocket ?"

Amongst the pocket bribes, the lady never

Acquaintance, ' 1 7 1

fails to select the most useless trinkets ; the
child would make a better choice ; for if there
should appear a pocket-book, which may be
drawn up by a ribbon from its slip case, a screen
that would unfold gradually into a green star, a
pocket fan, or a tooth -pick case with a spring
lock, the child would seize upon these with de-
light: but the moment its attention is fixed, it
is interrupted by the officious exclamation of
" Oh let me do that for you, love ! Let me open
*^ that for you, you'll break your sweet little
" nails. Ha! there is a looking-glass ; whose
" pretty face is that? but we don't love people
" for being pretty, you know ; (mamma says I
" must not tell you, you are pretty) but we love
" little girls for being good, and I am sure you
" look as if you were never naughty. I am sure
'' you don't know what it is to be naughty ; will
" you give me one kiss ? and will you hold out
" your pretty little hand for some sugar plums r
'^ Mamma shakes her head, but mamma will not
" be angry, mamma can refuse you nothing, I'll
" answer for it. Who spoils you ? Whose fa-
" vourite are you ? Who do you love best in the
" world ? and will you love me ? and will you
'' come and live with me? Shall I carry you
" away in the coach with me to-night? Oh !
*^ but Fm afraid I should eat you up, and then
*' what would martima say to us both?"

172 Practical Education.

To stop this torrent of nonsense^ the child's
mother, perhaps, ventures to interfere with, " My
^^ dear, Vm afraid you'll be troublesome." But
this produces only vehement assertions " that
*^ the dear Httle creature can never be trouble-
" some to any body." Woe be to the child who
imphcitly beheves this assertion ! frequent re-
buffs from his friends must be endured before
the error will be thoroughly rectified: this will
not tend to make those friends more agreeable,
or more beloved. That childish love, which
varies from hour to hour, is scarcely worth con-
sideration ; it cannot be an object of competition
to any reasonable person, but in early education
nothing^ must be thought beneath our attention.
A child does not retain much aifection, it is
true, for every casual visitor by whom he is flat-
tered and caressed. The individuals are here
to-day, and gone to-morrow ; variety prevents
the impression from sinking into the mind; but
the general impression remains, though each
particular stroke is not seen. Young children,
who are much caressed in company, are less in-
tent than others upon pleasing those they live
with, and they are also less independent in their
occupations and pleasures. Those who govern
such pupils have not sufficient power over them,
because they have not the means of giving plea-
sure; because their praise or blame is frequently

Acquaintance, 173

counteracted by the applause of visits rs. That
unbroken course of experience, which is neces-
sary for the success of a regular plan of educa-
tion, cannot be preserved. Every body may
have observed the effect which the extraordi-
nary notice of strangers produces upon children.
After the day is over, and the company has left
the house, there is a cold blank ; a melancholy
silence. The children then sink into them-
selves, and feel the mortifying change in their
situation. They look with dislike upon every
thing round them ; yawn with ennui, or fidget
with fretfulness, till on the first check which
they meet with, their secret discontent bursts
forth into a storm. Resistance, caprice, and
peevishness, are not borne with patience by a
governess, though they are submitted to with
smiles by the complaisant visitor. In the same
day, the same conduct produces totally different
consequences. Experience, it is said, makes
fools wise ; but such experience as this would
make wise children fools.

Why is this farce of civility, which disgusts
all parties, continually repeated between visitors
and children ? Visitors would willingly be ex-
cused from the trouble of flattering and spoiling
them ; but such is the spell of custom, that no
one dares to break it, even when every one feels
that it is absurd.

174 Practical Education,

Children who are thought to be clever are of-
ten produced to entertain" company ; they fill up
the time, and relieve the circle from that embar-
rassing silence, which proceeds from the having
nothing to say. Boys who are thus brought
forward at six or seven years old, and encou-
raged to say what are called smart things, sel-
dom as they grow up have really good under-
standings. Children, who, like the fools in former
times, are permitted to say every thing, now and
then blurt out those simple truths which polite-
ness conceals ; this entertains people, but, in
fact, it is a sort of ndixkte^ which may exist with-
out any great talent for observation, and without
any powers of reasoning. Every thing in our
manners, in the customs of the v^^orld, is new to
children, and the relations of apparently dissimi-
lar things strike them immediately from their
novelty. Children are often witty, without
knowing it, or rather without. intending it; but
as they grow older^ the same kind of wit does
not please ; the same objects do not appear in
the same point of view ; and boys who have
been the delight of a whole house at seven or
eight years old, for the smart things they could
say, sink into stupidity and despondency at thir-
teen or fourteen. " Un nom trop tot fameuxest
" un fardeau tres pesant," said a celebrated wit.

Plain sober sense does not entertain common

Acquaintance. 175

visitors ; and children whose minds are occupied,
and who are not ambitious of exhibiting them-
selves for the entertainment of the company, will
not in general please. So much the better, they
will escape many dangers ; not only the dangers
of flattery, but also the dangers of nonsense.
Few people know how to converse with chil-
dren ; they talk to them of things that are above
or below their understandings ; if they argue
with them, they do not reason fairly ; they si-
lence them with sentiment, or with authority ; or
else they baflfle them by wit, or by unintelligible
terms. They often attempt to try their capaci-
ties with quibbles and silly puzzles. Children
who are expert at answering these have rarely
been well educated : the extreme simplicity of
sensible children will surprise those who have
not been accustomed to it, and many will be pro-
voked by their inaptitude to understand the com-
mon-place wit of conversation.

" How many sticks go to a rook's nest ? "
said a gentleman to a boy of seven years old :
he looked very grave, and, having pondered upon
the question for some minutes, answered, " I
'' do not know what you mean by the word
'^ go." Fortunately for the boy, the gentleman
who asked the question was not a captious que-
rist ; he perceived the good sense of this an-
swer ; he perceived that the boy had exactly hit

2

176 Practical Education.

upon the ambiguous word which was puzzling
to the understanding, and he saw that this
shovved more capacity than could have been
shown by the parrying of a thousand witticisms.

We have seen S -, a remarkably intelligent

boy of nine years old, stand with the most
puzzled face imaginable, considering for a long
half hour the common quibble of " There waS
" a carpenter who made a door ; he made it too
*' large ; he cut it and cut it, and he cut it too
^* little ; he cut it again and it fitted." S-^ — ^
showed very little satisfaction, when he at length
discovered the double meaning of the words
^^ too little ; " but simply said, " I did not know
" you meant that the carpenter cut too little off
'' the door."

" Which has most legs, a horse or no horse ?"
" A horse has more legs than no horse," replies
the unwary child. " But," continues the witty
sophist, " a horse, surely, has but four legs ;
" did you ever see a horse with five legs ? "
*' Never," says the child ; " no horse has five
" legs." " Oh, ho !" exclaims the entrapper,
" I have you now ! No horse has five legs^ you
" say; then you must acknowledge that no
^' horse has more legs than a horse. Therefore,
*^ when I asked you which has most legs, a Jwrse
" or no horse, your answer, you see, should have
" been, 7io horse.

Acquaintance^ 177

►i^i

Ihe fiimous dilemma of " you have what you
" have not lost ; you have not lost horns ; then
" you have horns;" is much in the same style
of reasoning. Children may readily be taught to
chop logic, and to parry their adversaries tech-
nically in a contest of false wit; but this will
not improve their understandings, though it may
to superficial judges give them the appearance
of great quickness of intellect. We should not
even in jest talk nonsense to children, nor suffer
them ever to hear inaccurate language. If con-
fused answers be given to their questions, they
will soon be content with a confused notion of
things; they will be 'satisfied with bad reason-
ing, if they are not taught to distinguish it scru-
pulously from what is good, and to reject it
steadily. Half the expressions current in con-
versation have merely a nominal value; they
represent no ideas, and they pass merely by com-
mon courtesy : but the language of every person
of sense has sterling value ; it cheats and
puzzles nobody, and even when it is addressed
to children, it is made intelligible. No common
acquaintance, who talks to a child merely for
his own amusement, selects his expressions
with any care ; what becomes of the child after-
wards is no part of his concern, he does not con-
sider the advantage of clear explanations to the
Understanding, nor would he be at the pains of

VOL. I. N

178 Practical Education,

explaining any thing thoroughly, even if he were
able to do so. And how few people are able to
explain distinctly, even when they most wish to
make themselves understood !

The following conversation passed between a
learned doctor (formerly) of the Sorbonne, and a
boy of seven years old.

Doctor. So, Sir, I see you are very advanced
already in your studies. You are quite expert
at Latin. Pray, Sir, allow me to ask you ; I
suppose you have heard of Xully's Offices ?

Boy. Tully's Offices ! No, Sir.

Z)oc*/c?r. No matter. You can, I will venture
to say, solve me the following question. It is
not very difficult, but it has puzzled some abler
casuiits, lean tell you, though, than you or I;
but if you will lend me your attention for a very
few moments, I flatter myself, I shall make my-
self intelligible to you.

The boy began to stiffen at this exordium, but
he fixed himself in an attitude of anxious atten-
tion ; and the doctor, after having taken two
pinches of snuff, proceeded :

" In the island of Rhodes there was once,
^' formerly, a great scarcity of provisions, a famine
.** quite; and some merchants fitted out ten ships
" to relieve the Rhodians : and one of the mer-
^^ chants got into port sooner than the others, and
^^ he took advantage of this circumstance to sell

Acquaintance. 17^

" his goods at an exorbitant rate, finding himself
" in possession of the market. The RhodianS
" did not know that the other ships laden with
*' provisions were to be in the next day, and
" they of course paid this merchatit whatsoever
" price he thought proper to demand. Now the
" question is, in morality, whether did he act
*^ the part of an honest man in this business by
*^ the Rhodians ? Or should he not rather have
*^ informed them of the nine ships which were
'* expected to come with provisions to the mar-^
" ket the ensuing day ?"

The boy was silent, and did not Appear to
comprehend the story or the question in the
least. In telling his story, the doctor of the Sor-
bonne unluckily pronounced the words ship
and ships in such a manner, that the child all
along mistook them for sheep and sheeps, and
this mistake threw every thing into confusion.
Besides this, a number of terms were made use
of which were quite new to the boy. Getting
into port — being in possession of the market —
selling goods at an exorbitant rate ; together with
the whole mystery of buying and selling, were
as new to him, and appeared to him as difficult
to be understood, as the most abstract metaphy-
sics. He did not even know what was meant
by the ships being expected in the next day ; and
^^ acting the part of an honest man/' Was to him

N 2

180 Practical Education.

an unusual mode of expression. The young
casuist made no hand of this case of conscience ;
when at last he attempted an answer, he only
exposed himself to the contempt of the learned
doctor. When he was desired to repeat the
story, he made a strange jumble about some
people who wanted to get some sheep, and about
one man who got in his sheep before the other
nine sheep ; but he did not know how or why
it was wrong in him not to tell of the other
sheep. Nor could he imagine why the Rhodlans
could not get sheep without this man. He had
never had any idea of a famine. The boy's fa-
ther, unwilling that he should retire to rest with
his intellects in this state of confusion, as soon
as the doctor had taken leave, told the story to
the child in different words, to try whether it
was the words or the ideas that puzzled him,

*^ In the iEgean sea, which you saw the other
** day in the map, there is an island, which ia
*' called the island of Rhodes. In telling my
*^ story, I take the opportunity to fix a point in
*' geography in your memory. In the i^gean
'^ sea there is an island which is called the island
" of Rhodes. There was once a famine in this.
*' island, that is to say, the people had not food
" enough to live upop, and they were afraid that
<' they should be starved to death. Some mer-^
" chants who lived on the continent of Greece

3

Acquaint a7Ke* 1 8 1

*' filled ten ships with provisions, and they sailed
" in these vessels for the island of Rhodes. It
*' happened that one of these ships got to the
" island sooner than any of the others. It was
" evening, and the captain of this ship knew
" that the others could not arrive till the morn-
" ing. Now the people of Rhodes, being ex-
" tremely hungry, were very eager to buy the
" provisions which this merchant had brought to
" sell ; and they were ready to give a great deal
** more money for provisions than they would
" have done if they had not been almost starved.
*^ There was not nearly a sufficient quantity of
" food in this one ship to supply all the people
*^ who wanted food ; and therefore those who had
** money, and who knew that the merchant wanted
** as much money as he could get in exchange for
" his provisions, offered to give him a large price,
'• the price which he asked for them. Had these
'^ people known that nine other ships full of
*' provisions would arrive in the morning, they
** would not have been ready to give so much
" money for food, because they would not have
" been so much afraid of being starved ; and they
" would have known that, in exchange for their
** money, they could have a greater quantity of
" food the next day. The merchant, however,
** did not tell them that any ships were expected
" to arrive, and he consequently got a great deal

IB2 Practical Education.

i*' more of their money than he would have done
" for his provisions, if he had told them the fact
^' w^hich he knew, and which they did not know.

/^ Do you think that he did right or wrong?"

The child, who now had rather more the ex-
pression of intelligence in his countenance, than
he had when the same question had been put to
him after the former statement of the case, im-
mediately answered, that he " thought the mer-
*' chant had done wrong, that he should have

;*^ told the people that more ships were to come
*^ in the morning." Several different opinions
were given afterwards by other children and
grown people, who were asked the same ques-
tion; and what had been an uninteHigible story
was rendered, by a little more skill and patience
in the art of explanation, an excellent lesson, or
rather exercise, in reasoning.

It is scarcely possible that a stranger, who sees
a child only for a few hours can guess what he
Jcnows, and what he does not know ; or that he
can perceive the course of his thoughts, which
depend upon associations over which he has no
command ; therefore, when a stranger, let his
learning and abilities be what they will, attempts
to teach children, he usually puzzles them, and
the consequences of the confusion of mind he
creates often last for years; sometimes it influ-
ences their moraL sometimes their scientific rea^

Acquaintance. 1S3

soning. " Every body but my friends," said a
little girl of six years old, '' tell me I am very
" pretty." From this contradictory evidence
what must the child have inferred r The per-
plexity which some young people, almost ar-
rived at the years of discretion, have shown in
their first notions of mathematics has been a
matter of astonishment to those who have at-
tempted to teach them ; this perplexity has
been at length discovered to arise from their hav-
ing early confounded in their minds the ideas of
a triangle and an angle. In the most common
modes of expression there are often strange in-
accuracies, which do not strike us, because they
are familiar to us ; but children, who hear them
for the first time, detect their absurdity, and are
frequently anxious to have such phrases ex-
plained. If they converse much with idle visi-'
tors, they will seldom be properly applauded for
their precision, and their philosophic curiosity
will often be repressed by unmeaning replies.
Children, who have the habit of applying to
their parents, or to sensible preceptors, in similar
difficulties, will be somewhat better received,
and will gain rather more accurate information.

S (nine years old) was in a house where a

chimney was on fire ; he saw a great bustle, and
he heard the servants, and people as they ran
backwards and forwards, all exclaim> that " the

ia4 Practical Educatiori, ■,

^^ chimney was on fire " After the fire was put
out, and when the bustle was over, S — ^- said
to his father, " What do people mean when
'^ they say the chimnei/ isonjire ? What is it that
^^ burns?" At this question a silly acquaintance
would probably have laughed in the boy's face,
would have expressed astonishment as soon as
his visit was over at such an instance of strange
ignorance in a boy of nine years old ; or, if
civility had prompted any answer, it would per-
haps have been, " The chimney's being on fire,
^' my love, means that the chimney's on fire )
^^ Everybody knows what's meant by ^the chim-
" pey's on fire ? ' There's a great deal of smoke,
" and sparks, and flame, coming out at the top,
*^ you know, when the chimney's on fire. And
" it's extremely dangerous, and it would set a
*^ house on fire, or perhaps the whole neigh bour-
«' hood, if it was not put out immediately.
<^ Many dreadful fires, you know, happen in
^^ tovY\:^s, as we hear for ever in the news|:)aper,
<* by a chimney's taking §re. Did you never
** hear of a chimney's being on fire before ? You
*^ are a very happy young gentleman to have lived
" to your time of life, and to be still at a loss
*^ about such a thing. What burns ? Why, my dear
'^ Sir, the chimney burns; fire burns in the
^^ chimney. To be sure fires are sad accidents ;
^^ many lives are lost by them every day. I had a^

Acquaintance. 185

" cbimney on fire in my drawing-room last
^« year."

Thus would the child's curiosity have been
ba^ed by a number of words without meaning
or connexion ; on the contrary, when he applied
to a father, who was interested in his improve-
ment, his sensible question was listened to with
approbation. He was told that the chimney's
being on fire, was an inaccurate common expres-
sion ; that it was the soot in the chimney, not
the chimney, that burned ; that the soot was
sometimes set on fire by sparks of fire, some-
times by flame, which might have been acciden-
tally drawn up the chimney. — Some of the soot
which had been set on fire was shown to him ;
the nature of burning in general, the manner in
which the chimney draws^ the meaning of that
expression, and many other things connected
with the subject were explained upon this occa-
sion to the inquisitive boy, who was thus encou-
raged to think and speak accurately, and to ap-
ply in similar difficulties to the friend who had
thus taken the trouble to understand his simple
question. A random answer to a child's ques-
tion does him a real injury ; but can we expect
^that those, who have no interest in education,
!. should have the patience to correct their whole
jconversation, and to adapt it precisely to the ca-
pacity of children ? This would indeed be un-

186 Practical Educatioji.

reasonable : all we can do is, to keep our pupils
out of the way of those who can do them no
good^ and who may dothenria great deal of harm.
We must prefer the permanent advantage of our
pupils to the transient vanity of exhibiting for
the amusement of company their early wit or
h " lively nonsense." Children should never be
/ introduced for the amusement of the circle ; nor
^ yet should they be condemned to sit stock still,
holding up their heads, and letting their feet dan-
gle from chairs that are too high for them, merely
that they may appear what is called well before
visitors. Whenever any conversation is going
forward which they can understand, they should
be kindly summoned to partake of the pleasures
of society ; its pains and its follies we may spare
thqm. The manners of young people will not
be injured by this arrangement ; they will be at
ease in company, because whenever they are
introduced into it they will make a part of it,
they will be interested and happy, they will feel
a proper confidence in themselves, and they will
not be intent upon their curtsies, their frocks,
their manner of holding their hands, or turning
out their toes, the proper placing of Sir, Madam,
or your Ladyship, with all the other inumer-
able trifles, which embarrass the imagination, and
consequently the manners, of those who are
taught to think that they are to sit still and

Acquaintance. 187

behave in company someway differently from
what they behave every day in their own
family.

We have hitherto spoken of acquaintance who
do not attempt or desire to interfere in educa-
tion, but who only caress and talk nonsense to
children with tiie best intentions possible : with
these, parents will find it comparatively easy to
manage : they can contrive to employ children,
or send them out to walk ; by cool reserve they
can readily discourage such visitors from flatter-
ing their children, and by insisting upon be-
coming a party in whatever is addressed to their
pupils, they can, in a great measure, prevent the
bad effects of inaccurate or imprudent conversa-
tion ; they can explain to their pupils what was
left unintelligible, and they can counteract false
associations, either at the moment they perceive
them, or at some well-chosen opportunity. But
there is a class of acquaintance with whom it
will be more difficult to manage ; persons who
are perhaps on an intimate footing with the
family, who are valued for their agreeable talents
and estimable qualities ; who are perhaps per-
sons of general information and good sense, and
who may yet never have considered the subject
of education ; or who having partially considered
it, have formed some peculiar and erroneous
opinions. They will feel themselves entitled to

186 Practical Education.

talk upon education as well as upon any other
topic ; they will hazard, and they will support,
opinions ; they will be eager to prove the truth
of their assertions, or the superiority of their
favourite theories. Out of pure regard for their
friends, they will endeavour to bring thcin over
to their own way of thinking in education ; and
they will, by looks, by hints, by inuendoes, unre-
strained by the presence of the children, in-
sinuate their advice and their judgment upon
every domestic occurrence. In the heat of de-
bate people frequently forget that children have
eyes and ears, or any portion of understanding ;
they are not aware of the quickness of that com-
prehension, which is excited by the motives of
cariosity and self love. It is dangerous io let
children be present at any arguments in which
tlie management of their minds is concerned,
until they can perfectly understand the whole of
the subject : they will, if they catch but a few
words, or a Hew ideas, imagine, perhaps, that
there is something wrong, some hardships, some
injustice^ practised against them by their friends;
yet they will not distinctly know, nor will they,
perhaps, explicitly inquire what it is. They
should be sent out of the room before any such
arguments are begun ; or, if the conversation be
abruptly begun before parents can be upon their
guard, they raay yet, without offending against

Acquaintance. 18$)

the common forms of polileness, decline en-
terinff into anv discussion till (heir children are
withdrawn. As to any direct attempt practically
to interfere with the children's education, by-
blame or praise, by presents, by books, or by
conversation, these should be resolutely and
steadily resisted by parents ; this will require
some strength of mind. What can be done
without it ? Many people, who are convinced
of the danger of the interference of friends and
acquaintance in the education of their children,
will yet, from the fear of offending, from the
dread of being thought singular, submit to the
evil. These persons may be very well received,
and very well liked in the world : they must
content themselves with this reward ; they
must not expect to succeed in education, for
strength of mind is absolutely necessary to those
who would carry a plan of education into effect.
Without being tied down to any one exclusive
plan, and with universal toleration for different
modes of moral and intellectual instruction, it
may be safely asserted, that the plan which is
most steadily pursued will probably succeed the
best. People, who are moved by the advice of
all their friends, and who endeavour to adapt
their system to every fashionable change in
opinion, will inevitably repent of their weak
complaisance ; they will lose all power over

IQO Practical Education,

their pupils, and will be forced to abandon the
education of their families to chance.

It will be found impossible to educate a child
at home, unless all improper interference from vi-
sitors and acquaintance is precluded. But it is
of yet more consequence, that the members of
the family must entireljT^ agree in their senti-
ments, or at least in the conduct of the children
under their care. Young people perceive very
quickly, whether there is unanimity in their go-
vernment; they make out an alphabet of looks
with unerring precision, and decypher with
amazing ingenuity all that is for their interest to
understand. When children are blamed or
punished, they always know pretty well who
pities them, who thinks that they are in the
wrong, and who thinks that they are in the right ;
and thus the influence of public opinion is what
ultimately governs. If they find that, when
mamma is displeased, grandmamma comforts
them, they will console themselves readily under
this partial disgrace, and they will suspect others
of caprice, instead of ever blaming themselves.
They will feel little confidence in their own ex-
perience, or in the assertions of others ; they
will think that there is alvvays some chance of
escape amongst the multitude of laws and law-
givers. No tutor or preceptor can be answer-
able^ or ought to undertake to ansxcerfor measures

Acquaintance* 19 1

xvhich he does not guide, Le Sage, with an in-
imitable mixture of humour and good sense, in
the short history of the education of the robbers
who supped in that cave in which dame Leonardo
officiated, has given many excellent lessons on
education. Captain Rolando's tutors could
never make any, thing of him, because, when--
ever they reprimanded him, he ran to his mo-
ther, fatiier, and grandfather, for consolation ;
and from them constantly received protection in
rebellion, and commiseration for the wounds
which he had inflicted upon his own hands and
face, purposely to excite compassion and to
obtain revenge.

It is obviously impossible that all the world,
the ignorant and the well informed, the man of
genius, the man of fashion, and the man of busi-
ness, the pedant and the philosopher, should
agree in their opinion upon any speculative sub-
ject ; upon the wide subject of education they
will probably differ eternally. It will therefore be
thought absurd to require this union of opinion
amongst the individuals of a family; but, let there
be ever so much difference in their private opi
nions, they can surely discuss any disputed point '
at leisure, when children are absent, or they can
in these arguments converse in French, or in-some
language which their pupils do not understand.
The same caution should be observed, as we just
6

192 Practical Education.

now recommended, with respect to acquaint-
ance. It is much better, when any difficulties
occur, to send the children at once into another
room, and to tell them that we do so, because
we have something to say that we do not wish
them to bear, than to make false excuses to get
rid of their company, or to begin whispering and
disputing in their presence.

These precautions are advisable, whilst our
pupils are young, before they are capable of com-
prehending arguments of this nature, and whilst
their passions are vehemently interested on one
side or the other. As young people grow up,
the greater variety of opinions they hear upon
all subjects the better ; they will then form the
habit of judging for themselves : whilst they are
very young they have not the means of forming
correct judgments upon abstract subjects, nor
are these the subjects upon which their judg-
ment can be properly exercised : upon the sub-
ject of education they cannot be competent
judges, because they cannot till they are nearly
educated have a complete view of the means,
nor of the end ; besides this, no mail is allowed
to be judge in bis own case.

Some parents allow their children a vast deal

of liberty whilst they are young, and restrain

them by absolute authority when their reason is

or ought to be a sufficient guide for their con-

Acquaintance, . jp3

duct. The contrary practice will make parents
much more beloved, and will make children
both wiser aud happier. Let no idle visitor,
no intrusive, injudicious friend, for one moment
interfere to lessen the authority necessary for
the purposes of education. Let no weak jea-
lousy, no unseasonable love of command, restrain
young people after they are sufficiently reason-
able to judge for themselves. In the choice
of their friends, their acquaintance, in all the
great and small affairs of life, let them have
liberty in proportion as they acquire reason.
Fathers do not commonly interfere with thei^
sons' amusements, nor with the choice of their
acquaintance, so much as in the regulation of
their pecuniary affairs ; but niothers, who have had
any considerable share in the education of boys,
are apt to make mistakes as to the proper seasons
for indulgence and controul. They do not watch
the moments when dangerous prejudices and
tastes begin to be formed ; they do not perceive
how the slight conversations of acquaintance
operate upon the ever open ear of childhood ;
but when the age of passion approaches, and
approaches, as it usually does, in storms and
tempests, then all their maternal fears are sud-
denly roused, and their anxiety prompts them
to use a thousand injudicious and ineffectual
expedients,

VOL. !• P

\(}4 Practical Education.

A modem princess, who had taken consider-
able pain« in the education of her son, made
both herself and him ridiculous by her anxiety
upon his introduction into the world. She
travelled about with him from place to place,
to make him see every thing worth seeing ; hut
he was not to stir from her presence ; she could
not bear to have him out of sight or hearing.
In all companies he was chaperoned by hk
mother. Was he invited to a ball, she mu«t be
invited also, or he could not accept of the in vita-
tion ; he must go in the same coach, and return
in the same coach with her. " I should like
" extremely to dance another dance," said he
one evening to his partner, " but you see I must
** go; my mother is putting on her cloak."
The talJ young man called for some negus, and
had the glass at his lips, when his mamma
called out in a shrill voice, through a vista of
heads, " Eh ! My son no drink wine ! My scm
*^ like milk and water !" The "son was at this time
at years of discretion.

Temper. % p5

CHAPTER }fl.

On Temper.

We have already, in speaking of the early
care of infants, suggested that the temper should
be attended to from the moment of their birth.
A negligent, a careless, a passionate servant^
must necessarily injure the temper of a child.
The first language of an infant is intelligible
only to its nurse ; she can distinguish between
the cry of pain, the note of ill-humour, or the
roar of passion. The cry of pain should be
listened to with the utmost care, and every pos-
sible means should be used to relieve the child's
sufferings : but when it is obvious that he cries
from ill-humour, a nurse should not soothe him
with looks of affection ; these she should reserve
for the moment when the storm is over. We
do not mean that infants should be suffered to
cry for a length of time without being regarded ;
this would give them habits of ill- humour ; we
only wish that the nurse would, as soon as
possible, teach the child that what he wants can

O 2

196 'Practical Education.

be obtained without his putting himself in a
passion. Great care should be taken to prevent
occasions for ill-humour ; if a nurse neglects her
charge, or if she be herself passionate^ the child
will suffer so much pain, and so many disap-
pointments, that it must be in a continual state
of fretfulness. An active, cheerful, good-hu-
moured, intelligent nurse, will make a child
good-humoured by regular affectionate attendr
ance^ by endeavouring to prevent all unnecessary
sufferings, and by quickly comprehending its
language of signs. The best-humoured woman
in the world, if she is stupid, is not lit to have
the care of a child ; the child will not be able
to make her understand any thing less than
vociferation. By way .of amusing the infant,
she will fatigue him with her caresses ; without
ever discovering the real cause of his woe, she
will sing one universal lullaby upon all occasions
to pacify her charge.

It requires some ingenuity to discover the
cause and cure of those long and loud fits of cry-
ing, which frequently arise from imaginary ap-
prehensions. A little boy of two years old used
to cry violently when he wakened in the middle
of the night, and saw a candle in the room. As
children are more apt to cry when they waken
in the dark, pains were taken to discover the
cause of his uneasiness : it >vas observed that;

Temper » 197

th6 shadow of the person who was moving about
in the room frightened him, and as soon as the
cause of his crying was found out, it was easy to
pacify him ; his fear of shadows was eflfectually
cured, by playfully showing him at different times
that shadows had no power to hurt him*

H , about nine months old, when she first

began to observe the hardness of bodies, let her
hand fall upon a cat which had crept unper-
ceived upon the table ; she was surprised and
terrified by the unexpected sensation of softness ;
she could not touch the cat, or any thing that
felt like soft fur, without showing agitation, till
she was near four years old, though every gentle
means were used to conquer her antipathy : the
antipathy was, however, cured at last, by her
having^ a wooden cat covered with fur for a
plaything.

A boy between four and five years old, H-^,
used to cry bitterly when he was lieft alone in a
room in which there were some old family pic-
tures. Jt was found that he was much afraid of
these pictures : a maid who took care of him,
had terrified him with the notion that they
would come to him, or that they were looking
at hirn,,and would be angry with him if he was
not good. To cure him of his fear of pictures, a
small sized portrait, which was not amongst the
number of those which had frightened him, was

Idfil Practical Education.

produced m broad day-light. A piece of cake
was put upon this picture, which the boy wa$
desired to take ; he took it, touched the picture,
and was shown the canvass at the back of it,
which, as it happened to be torn, he could
easily identify with the painting : the picture
wa« then given to him for a plaything ; he made
use of it as a table, and became very fond of it as
Soon as he was convinced that it was not alive,
and that it could do him no sort of injury.

By patiently endeavouring to discover the
causes of terror in children, we may probably
prevent their tempers from acquiring many bad
habits. It is scarcely possible for any one, who
has not constantly lived with a child, and who
has not known the whole rise and progress of
his little character, to trace the causes of these
strange apprehensions ; for this reason, a parent
has advantages in the education of his child
which no tutor or schoolmaster can enjoy.

'A little boy was observed to show signs of
fear and dislike at hearing the sound of a drum ;
to a stranger such fear must have seemed unac-
countable ; but those who lived with the child
knew from what it arose. He had been terrified
by the sight of a merry-andrew in a mask, who
had played upon a drum ; this was the first time
that he had heard the sound of a drum ; the
sound was associated with fear, and continued

I

Temper. 199

to raise apprehension in the child's mind after
he had forgotten the original cause of that ap-
prehension.

We are well aware that we have laid ourselves
open to ridicule by the apparently trifling anec-
dotes which have just been mentioned ; but
if we can save one child from an hour's un-
necessary misery, or one parent from an hour's
anxiety, we shall bear the laugh, we hope, with
good humour.

Young children who have not a great number
of ideas, perhaps for that reason associate those
which they acquire with tenacity ; they cannot
reason concerning general causes ; they expect
that any event, which has once or twice fol-
lowed another, will always follow in the same
order ; they do not distinguish between proximate
and remote causes ; between coincidences and
the regular connexion of cause and effect ; hence
children are subject to feel hopes and fears from
things which to us appear matters of indifference.
Suppose, for instance, that a child is very eager
to go out to walk, that his mother puts on her
gloves and her cloak, these being the usual
signals that she is going out, he instantly
expects, if he has been accustomed to accom-
pany her, that he shall have the pleasure of
walking out ; but if she goes out, and forgets
him, he is not only disappointed at that moment,

2oa Practical Education,

but the disappointment^ or, at least, some rndisr-
tinct apprehension, recurs to him, when he is^
in a similar situation : the putting on of his
mother's cloak . and gloves are then circum-
stances of vast importance to him, and create
anxiety, perhaps tears, whilst to every other
spectator they are matters of total indiiference.
Every one, who has had any experience in the
education of such children as are apt to form
strong associations, must be aware that many of
those fits of crying, which appear to arise solely
from ill-humour, are occasioned by association.
Wfien these are suffered to become habitual^
they are extremely difficult to conquer ; it is
therefore best to conquer them as soon as
possible. If a child has, by any accident, been
disposed to cry at particular times in the day,
without any obvious cause, we should at those
hours engage his attention, occupy him, change
the room he is in, or by any new circumstance
break his habits. It will require some penetra-
tion to distinguish between involuntary tears
and tears of caprice ; but even when children
are really cross, it is not, whilst they are very
young, prudent to kt them wear out their ill-
humour, as some people do, in total neglect.
Children, when they are left to weep in solitude,
often continue in woe for a considerable length
rf time, till they quite forget the original cau^e

Temper. 201

of complaint, and they continue their convulsive
sobs, and whining note of distress, purely from
inability to stop themselves.

Thus habits of ill-humour are contracted ; it
is better, by a little well-timed excitation, to
turn the course of a child's thoughts, and to
make him forget his trivial miseries. " The
tear forgot as soon as shed" is far better than
the peevish whine, or sullen lowering brow,
which proclaims the unconquered spirit of dis-
content.

Perhaps, from the anxiety which we have
expressed to prevent the petty misfortunes and
unnecessary tears of children, it may b^ sup-
posed that we are disposed to humour them ;
far from it. We know too well that a humoured
child is one of the most unhappy beings in the
world ; a burthen to himself and to his friends ;
capricious, tyrannical, passionate, peevish, sullen,
and selfish.

An only child runs a dreadful chance of
being spoiled. He is born a person of conse-
quence i he soon discovers his innate merit ;
every eye is turned upon him the moment he
enters the room ; his looks, his dress, his appe-
tite, are all matters of daily concern to a whole
family ; his wishes are divined ; his wants are
prevented ; his witty sayings are repeated in his
presence ; his smiles are courted ; his caresses

2011 Practical Education,

ex«te jealoiMy, aad he soon learns how to avail
himself of his central situation. His father and
mother make him alternately their idol, and
their plaything ; they do not tliink of ediKrating,
they think only of admiring him ; they imagine
that he is unlike all other children in the
universe, and that his genius and his temper
are independent of all cultivation. But when
this little paragon of perfection has two or three
brothers and sisters, the scene changes ; the man
of consequence dwindles into an insignificant
little boy. We shall hereafter explain more
fully the danger of accustoming children to a
large share of our sympathy ; we hope that the
oeconomy of kindness and caresses, which we
have recommended, will be found to increase
domestic affection, and to be essentially ser-
viceable to the temper. In a future chapter,
" On Vanity, Pride, and Ambition," some re-
marks will be found on the use and abuse of the
stimuli of praise, emulation, and ambition.
The precautions which we have already men-
tioned with respect to servants, and the methods
that have been suggested for inducing habitual and
rational obedience, will also, we hope, be consi^
dered as serviceable to the temper, as well as to
the understanding. Perpetual and contradictory
commands and prohibitions not only make
children disobedient, but fretful, peevish, and
passionate.

Temper. 103

Idleness amongst children, as amongst men,
is the root of all evil, and leads to no evil more
certainly than to ill-temper. It is said * that
the late king of Spain was always so cross during
Passion-week, w^hen he was obliged to abstain
from his favourite amusement of hunting, that
none of his courtiers liked to approach his ma-
jesty. There is a great similarity between the
condition of a prince flattered by his courtiers
and a child humoured by his family ; and we
may observe, that both the child and prince are
most intolerable to their dependants and friends,
when any of their daily amusements are inter-
rupted. It is not that the amusements are in
themselves delightful, but the pains and penal-
ties of idleness are insupportable. We have
endeavoured to provide a variety of occupations,
as well as amusements, for our young pupils,
that they may never know the misery of the
Spanish monarch. When children are occupied,
they are independent of other people ; they are
not obliged to watch for casual entertainment
from those who happen to be unemployed, or
who chance to be in a humour to play with
them ; they have some agreeable object continu-
ally in view, and they feel satisfied with them-
selves. They will not torment every body in the

* By Mr. TownseBd, in his Travels into Spain.

204 Practical Education.

house with incessant requests. " May I have
" this ? Will you give me that ? May I go out to
<' see such a thing? When will it be dinner-
" time ? When will it be tea-time ? When will
" it be time for me to go to supper ?" are the
impatient questions of a child who is fretful
from having nothing to do. Idle children are
eternal petitioners, and the refusals they meet
with perpetually irritate their temper. With
respect to requests in general, we should either
grant immediately what a child desires, or
we should give a decided refusal. The state of
suspense is not easily borne ; the propriety or
impropriety of the request should decide us
either to grant or to refuse it ; and we should
not set the example of caprice, or teach our
pupils the arts of courtiers, who watch the
humour of tyrants. If we happen to be busy,
and a child comes with an eager request about
some trifle, it is easy so far to command our
temper as to answer, '^ I am busy, don't talk to
" me now," instead of driving the petitioner
away with harsh looks, and a peremptory refusal,
which make as great an impression as harsh words.
If we are reasonable, the child will soon learn
to apply to us at proper times. By the same
steady, gentle conduct, we may teach him to
manage his love of talking with discretion, and
may prevent those ineffectual exhortations to

Temper, ^ SOS

siience, which irritate the temper of the vivacious
pupil. Expostulations, and angry exclamations,
will not so effectually command from our pu«»
pils temperance of tongue, as their own convic^
tion that they are more likely to gain attention
from their friends, if they choose properly their
seasons for conversation.

To prevent, we cannot too often repeat it, is
better than to punish ; without humouring chil-
dren, that is to say, without yielding to their
caprices, or to their xvill, we may prevent many
of those little inconveniences which tease and
provoke the temper ; acute pain can be endured
with fortitude, but any continued irritation ex-
hausts our patience.

We have sometimes seen children become
fretful from the constant teasing effect of some
slight inconveniences in their dress ; we have
pitied poor little boys, who were continually
exhorted to produce their handkerchiefs, and
who could scarcely ever get those handkerchiefs
out of the tight pockets into which they had
been stuffed ; into such pockets the hand can
never enter, or withdraw itself, without as
much difficulty as Trenck had in getting rid of
his handcuffs. The torture of tight shoes, of
back-boards, collars, and stocks, we hope, is
nearly abandoned ; surely all these are unneces-
sary trials of fortitude ; they exhaust that patience

1 ^

106 Practical Education.

which might be exercised upon things of conse-
quence. Count Rumford tells us^ that he
observed a striking melioration in the temper of
all the mendicants in the estabhshment at
Munich, when they were relieved from the
constant tt>rments of rags and vermin.

Some people imagine that early sufferings,
that a nuimher of small inconveniences, habitual
sevei'ity of reproof, and frequent contradiction
and di«appointment, inure children to pain, and
consequently improve their temper. Early suf-
ferings, whida are necessary and inevitable,
may improve children in fortitude ; but the
contradictions and disappointments, which arise
immediately from the will of others, have not
the same effect. Children^ where their own
interests are concerned, soon distinguish between
these two clas^s^ of evils : they submit patiently
V^laeaft daey know that it would be in vain to
struggle; they murmur and rebel, if they dare,
wl>enever they feel the hand of power press
upon them capriciously. We should not invent
trials of temper for our pupils; if they can bear
with good humour the common course of events,
we should be satisfied.

iv ". I tumbled down, and I bored it very well,"
said a little boy of three years old with a look
of great satisfaction. If this little boy had been
ti>rown down on purpose ;by his parents as a

Temper. ^07

trial of tecnper, it pf>obably would not have been
borne so weli. As to inconveniences, in general
it i« rather a sign of indolence than a proof of
^ood temper in children, who submit to them
<^)ietly ; if they can be retnedted by exertitm,
why should they be passively eedured ? If they
cannot be ren»edied, undoubtedly it is tl^ien
better to abstract the attention from them as much
a« possible, because this is the only laiethod
of lessening the pain. Children should be as
sisted in making this distinction, by our ap-
plauding their exertions when they druggie
against unnecessary evil, by our conamending
tlveir patience whenever they endure inevitable
pain without complaints.

Illness, for instance, is an inevitable evil.
To pi^event children fi^ona becoming peevish,
when tbey are ill, we should give our pity and
symj^athy with an increased appearance of affec-
tion, whenever they bear tl^eir illness with
patience. No artifice is necessary ; we need
not aflfeot any increase of pity: patience and
good humour in the sufferer naturally excite
tbe affection and esteem of the spectators. The
self-complacency, which the youaag patient must
feel from a sense of his own fortitude, and the
perception that he commands the willing hearts
of all who attend him^ arc i>eally alleviations <^
4

208 Practical Education,

his bodily sufferings; the only alleviations
which, in some cases, can possibly be afforded.

The attention which is thought necessary in
learning languages often becomes extremely
painful to the pupils, and the temper is often
hurt by ineffectual attempts to improve the un-
derstanding. We have endeavoured to explain
the methods of managing the attention of chil-
dren with the least possible degree of pain.
Yesterday a little boy of three years old, W — ,
was learning his alphabet from his father ; after
he had looked at one letter for some time with
great attention, he raised his eyes, and with a
look of much good-humour, said to his father,
** It makes me tired to stand." His father
seated him upon his knee, and said that he did
wisely in telling what tired him : the child, the
moment he was seated, fixed his attentive eyes
again upon his letters with fresh eagerness, and
succeeded. Surely it was not humouring this
boy to let him sit down when he was tired. If
we teach a child that our assistance is to be pur-
chased by fretful intreaties ; if we show him
that we are afraid of a storm, he will make use
of our apprehensions to accomplish his purposes.
On the contrary, if he finds that we can steadily
resist his tears and ill-humour, and especially if
we show indifference upon the occasion, he will

Temper, 'iOQ

perceive that he had better dry his tears, suspend
his rage, and try how far good humour will
prevail. Children, who in every little difficulty
are assisted by others, really believe that others
are in fault whenever this assistance is not
immediately offered. Look at a humoured
child trying to push a chair along the carpet ; if
a wrinkle in the carpet stops his progress, hfe
either beats the chair, or instantly turns with an
angry, appealing look to his mother for assistance;
and if she does not get up to help him, he will
cry. Another boy who has not been humoured,
will neither beat the chair, nor angrily look
round for help, but he will look imttiediately
to see what it is that stops the chair, and when
he sees the wrinkle in the carpet, he will either
level oi* surmount the obstacle ; during this
whole operation he will not feel in the feast
inclined to cry. Both these children might have
had precisely the same original stock of patience,
but by different management the one would
become passionate and peevish^ the other both
good-humoured and persevering. The plieasure
of succesis pays children, as well as men, for
long toil and labour. Success is the proper
reward of perseverance ; but if we sometimes
capriciously grant, and sometimes refuse our
help, our pupils cannot learn this important
truth ; atid they imagine that success depends

VOL. I. p

210 Practical Education.

upon the will of others, and not upon their own
efforts. A child educated by a fairy, who some-
times came with magic aid to perform her tasks,
and who was sometimes deaf to her call, would
necessarily become ill-humoured.

Several children, who were reading " Even-
ings at home," observed that in the story of
Juliet and the fairy order, " it was wrong to
" make the fairy come whenever Juliet cried
" and could not do her task, because that was
" the way, said the children, to make the little
" girl ill-humoured."

We have formerly observed that children, who
live much with companions of their own age,
are under but little habitual restraint as to
their tempers ; they quarrel, fight, and shake
hands ; they have long and loud altercations,
in which the strongest voice often gets the better.
It does not improve the temper to be overborne
by petulance and clamour : even mild, sensible
children will learn to be positive if they converse
with violent dunces. In private families, where
children mix in the society of persons of different
ages, who encourage them to converse without
reserve, they may meet with exact justice; they
may see that their respective talents and good
qualities, are appreciated ; they may acquire the
habit of arguing, without disputing, and they
may learn tliat species of mutual forbearance in

Temper. 21 1

trifles, as well as in matters of consequence,
which tends so much to domestic happiness.
Dr. Franklin, in one of his letters to a young
female friend, after answering some questions
which she had asked him, apparently referring to
an argument which had passed some time before,
concludes with this comprehensive compliment :
" So, you see, I think you had the best of the
" argument ; and, as you gave it up in complai-
*^ sance to the company, I think you had also the
" best of the dispute'^ When young people
perceive that they gain credit by keeping their
temper in conversation, they will not be furious
for victory, because moderation, during the
time of battle, can alone entitle them to the
honours of a triumph.

It is particularly necessary for girls to acquire
command of temper in arguing, because much
of the effect of their powers of reasoning, and
of their wit, when they grow up, will depend
upon the gentleness and good-humour with
which they conduct themselves. A woman,
who should attempt to thunder like De-
mosthenes, would not find her eloquence in-
crease her domestic happiness. We by no means
wish that women should yield their better
judgment to their fathers or husbands ; but,
without using any of that debasing cunning

p2

212 Practical Education.

V^bich Rousseau recommends, they may support
the cause of reason with alj the graces of female
gentleness.

A man in a furious passion is terrible to hi?
enemies, but a ,woman in ^ p^sion is disgusting
to her friends : she loses the respect due to l)er
sex, and she has not mascuhne strength g^d CQVi-
rage to enforce any other species of respect.
These circumstances should be considered by
writers who adyise that no difference should be
xpade in ]the education of the two sexes. We
c^npot help thinking that their happiness is of
pore consequence than their specuUtive rights ;
^nd wp wish to educate women so that they may
be happy in the situations in which they ^rf
most likely to be placed. So mych dependt
upon the temper of wouigu, tb^t it ought to be
most carefully cultivated ip e<arly life ; girjf
^bpuld be naore inured to restraint than boys, be-
f^^ijse they ^re hkely to pae^t with more restraint
Jp society. Girls should le^rn the habit of bear-
ing slight reproofs ; but then thpy should always
bje perqaitte^ to state their g^rgument^, and th&y
shpuld perceive that justice is shown tp X\wm,
^nd th»t they incre^s^ the affection and esteenj
pf their friiends by command of tamper. Many
p^issionat^ m^;i are extremely good-natured, an4
mak^ am^pd? for their ^xtravag^n^es by their

TenipeY. 213

caridbut* alid- theii* eagerness to pleag^ those
whoitt tHey haVe injufed during their fits of an-
ger. It ife said that the servants of Dfeart Swift
used to throve themselves in his way whenever
hfe Wa% in a* passion, because they knew that his
gencirosity would recompense them' for standing
the full fire of his anger. A woman, who per-
rtlitted herself to treat her servants with ill-hu-
mour, and who believed that she could pay them
for' ill usage, would make a very bad mistress of
a faniily; hfefr husbattd and her children would
suifer fVom' her ill-temper, without being recom-
pensed for their misery. We should not' let
girls ilnagine that they can balance ill-huiriour by
some good quality or accomplisHment; because,
in fact, there are none which can supply the want
of tertiper in the female sex.

A just idea of the nature of dignity, opposed
to what is commonly called spirit^ should be
given eariy to our female pupils. Many vi^omen,
who are not disposed to violence of temper,
affect a certain degree of petulance^ and a cer-
tain stubbornness of opinion, merely because they
imagine that to be gentle, is to be mean, and that
to listen' tb reason', is to be deficient ihsfiiiit.

Enlargiilg the understanding of young women
will prevent them from feeling those trifling
vexations which irritate those who have none
but trifling obje'Cts. WeT* haVfe observed that

2

214 Practical Education,

concerted trials of temper are not advantageous
for very young children ; those trials, which are
sometimes prepared for pupils at a more ad-
vanced period of education, are not always more
happy in their consequences. We make trifles
appear important, and then we are surprised that
they are thought so.

Lord Kaimes tells us that he was acquainted
with a gentleman who, though otherwise a man
of good understanding, did not show his good
sense in the education of his daughter's temper,
" He had," says Lord Kaimes, " three comely
^^ daughters, between twelve and sixteen, and to
^^ inure thern to bear disappointments, he would
^' propose to make a visit, which he knew
" would delight them. The coach was bespoke,
" and the young ladies, completely armed for
*^ conquest, were ready to take their seats. But,
^^ behold ! their father had changed bis rnind.
" This, indeed, was a disappointment ; but as
^' it appeared to proceed from whim, or caprice,
^^ it might sour their temper, instead of irpprov-
'' ing it.'' 'f'

But why should a visit be made a matter of
such mighty consequence to girls ? Why should
i^ be a disappointment to stay at home? and

* ]L^ord Kaimes, p. 109»

Temper. 21 a

why should Lord Kaimes advise, that disap-
pointment should be made to appear the effects
of chance ? This method, of making things ap-
pear to be what they are not, we cannot too
often reprobate ; it will not have better success
in the education of the temper, than in the ma-
nagement of the understanding ; it, will ruin one
or the other, or both : even when promises are
made with perfect good faith to young people,
the state of suspense which they create is not
serviceable to the temper, and it is extremely
difficult to promise proper rewards. The cele-
brated Serena established her reputation for good
temper without any very severe trials. Our stand-
ard of female excellence is evidently changed
«ince the days of Griselda ; but we are inclined
to think that, even in these degenerate days,
public amusements would not fill the female
imagination, if they were not early represented
as such charming things, such great rewards, to
girls, by their imprudent friends.

The temper depends much upon the under-
standing ; and whenever we give our pupils,
whether male or female, false ideas of pleasure,
v^e prepare for them innumerable causes of dis-
content. " You ought to be above such things !
" You ought not to let yourself be vexed
" by such trifles !" are common expressions,
which do not immediately change the irritated

21foh' Practical Education.

person's feelings. You must alter th^ habits of
thinking, you must change the view of the ob-
ject, before you can alter tlie feelings. Suppose
a girl has from the conversation of all her ac-
quaintance learned to imagine that there is some
vast pleasure in going to a masquerade : it is in.
vain to tell her, in the moment that slie is disap^
pointed about her masquerade dress, that " it is,
" a trifle, and she ought to be above trifles.'^
She cannot be above them at a, moment's warn-
ing; bqtif she had never been inspired with a.
yiplent, desire to go to a masquerade, the disap-,
pointment would really appear trifling. We may
calculate the probability of any person's mortifi-
cation, by observing the vehemence of his hopes;
thus we are led to observe, that the imagination
influences the temper. Upon this subject we^
shall speak more fully when we treat of Imagina-
tion and Judgment.

To ipeiasure the degrees of indulgence which
may be safe for any given pupils, we must at-
tend to the effect produced by pleasure upon
th|eir imagination and temper. If a small dimi-
ni^^JQpof their, usual enjoyments disturbs them,
t^j^y have, been rendered not tpo happy, but too
suscepjtible, Happy people, who have resources
in their, own power, do not feel ; every slight
v^riajtion , jp external circumstances. We may
s^Jjjf^alloW; cji^^^rep to be as happy as tbeypps-

Temper. 217

sibly can be without sacrificing the future to the
present. Such prosperity will not enervate their
minds.

We make this assertion with some confidence,
because experience has in many instances con-
firmed our opinion. Amongst a large family of
children, who have never been tormented with
artificial trials of temper, and who have been
made as happy as it was in the power of their pa-
rents to make them, there is not one ill-tempered
child. We have examples every day before us of
different ages, from three years old to fifteen.

Before parents adopt either Epicurean or Stoi-
cal doctrines in the education of the temper, it
may be prudent to calculate the probabilities of
the good-and evil, which their pupils are likely
to meet with in life. The Sybarite, whose night's
rest was disturbed by a doubled rose leaf, de-
serves to be pitied almost as much as the young
man who, when he was benighted in the snow,
was reproached by his severe father for having
collected a heap of snow to make himself; a pil-
low. Unless we could for ever ensure the bed
of roses to our pupils, we should do very impru-
dently to make it early necessary to their repose ;
unless the pillow of snow is likely to be their lot,
we need not inure them to it from their infancy,,

218 Practical Education.

CHAPTER VIL

On Obedience*

Obedience has been often called the virtue
of childhood. How far it is entitled to the name
of virtue we need not at present stop to examine;
obedience is expected from children long before
they can reason upon the justice of our com-
mands ; consequently it must be taught as a ha-
bit. By associating pleasure with those things
which we first desire children to do, we should
make them necessarily like to obey ; on the con-
trary, if we begin by ordering them to do what
is difficult and disagreeable to them, they must
dislike obedience. The poet seems to understand
this subject when he says,

" Or bid her wear your necklace rowed with pearl,
" You'll find your Fanny an obedient girl."*

The taste for a necklace rowed with pearl is
not the Ji7*st taste even in girls that we should

* Elegy on an old Beauty. Parnell.

Obedience. 129

wish to cultivate; but the poet's principle is
good, notwithstanding. Bid your child do things
that are agreeable to him, and you may be sure
of his obedience. Bid a hungry boy eat apple
pye. Order a shivering urchin to warm himself
at a good fire ; desire him to go to bed when you
see him yawn with fatigue ; and by such season-
able commands you will soon form associations
of pleasure in his mind, with the voice and tone
of authority. This tone should never be threat-
ening, or alarming ; it should be gentle, but de-
cided. Whenever it becomes necessary that a
child should do what he feels disagreeable, it is
better to make him submit at once to necessity,
than to create any doubt and struggle in his
mind, by leaving him a possibility of resistance.
Suppose a little boy wishes to set up later than
the hour at which you think proper that he
should go to bed, it is most prudent to take him
to bed at the appointed time without saying one
word to him, either in the way ^of entreaty or
command. If you entreat, you give the child
an idea that he has it in his power to refuse you :
if you command, and he does not instantly obey,
you hazard your authority, aj^d you teach him
that he can successfully set his will in opposition
to yours. The boy wishes to sit up ; he sees no
reason, in the moral fitness of things, why he

Uiza Practical Edumtion,

sHoald' go to bedat one hour more than at anothW;
all he perceives is, that such is your will. Whlai^
does he gain by obeying you ? Nothing ; he loseis'
the pleasure of sitting up half an hour longer.
Mow can you then expect, that he should itli
consequence of these reasonings give up hi§*
obvious immediate interest, and march oif to bed*
heroically, at the word of command ? Let him*
not be put to the trial : when he has for some'
time been regularly taken to bed at a fixed hour,
be* will acquire the habit^ of thinking that he
must go at that hour: association will make him'
expect it; and^ if his experience has been uni-
form> he will^ without knowing why, think it
necessary that he should do as he had been used'
to do. When the habit of obedience to custom-
ary necessity is thus formed, we may without
much risk engraft upon it obedience to the voice
of authority. For instance, when the boy hears
the clock stHke, the usual signal for his depar-
ture, you may, if you see that he is habitually
ready to obey this signal, associate your com-
mands with that to which he has already learned'
to jiay attention. " Go ; it is time th^V yoii^
" should go to bed nrovr; " will only seem 'tbf
the child ' a confirmation of the sentence already
pronounced by the clock : by degrees^ your
commands^, after they have' been regularly re-

Obedience. 22:1

peated, when the child feels no hope of evading
them, will, even in new circumstances, have frojn
association the power of compelling obedience.

Whenever we desire a child to do any things
Wie should be perfectly certain, not only that it
i^ ^a thing which he is capable of doing, but
also, that it is something we can, in case it
conjes to that ultimate argument, force him t©
do. You cannot oblige a child to stand up, if
he has a mind to sit down, or to walk, if he
does not choose to exert his muscles for tha^
purpose : but you can absolutely prevent hina
from touching whatever you desire him not to
«aeddle with, by your superior strength. It is
best then to be^in with prohibitions ; with suc^
prohibitions as you can, and will steadily perse*
yei'e to enforce : if you are not exact in requiring
obedience, you will never obtain it eitiier by
persuasion or authority. As it will require a
coj;isiderable portion of time and unremitting at-
tention, to enforce the punctual observance of a
variety of prohibitions, it will, for your awn sake>
b^ loost prudent to issue as few edicts as possi-
h\»t *od to he sparing in the use of the impe>-
rative mood. It will, if you calculate the trouble
you must take day after day to watch your pu-
pil, cost you less to begin by arranging every
circumstance in yo«r power, so as to prevent

222 Practical Education*

the necessity of trusting to laws what ought to
be guarded against by precaution. Do you, for
instance, wish to prevent your son from breaking
a beautiful china jar in your drawing-room :
instead of forbidding him to touch it, put it out
of his reach. Would you prevent your son
from talking to servants, let your house, in the
first place, be so arranged, that he shall never be
obliged to pass through any rooms where he
is likely to meet with servants ; let all his wants
be gratified without their interference ; let him
be able to get at his hat without asking the foot-
man to reach it for him, from its inaccessible
height. * The simple expedient of hanging the
hat in a place where the boy can reach it will
save you the trouble of continually repeating,
" Don't ask William, child, to reach your hat ;
" can't you come and ask me ?" Yes, the
boy can come and ask you ; but if you are busy,
you will not like to go in quest of the hat ;
your reluctance will possibly appear in your
countenance, and the child, who understands
the language of looks better than that of words,
will clearly comprehend that you are displeased
with him at the very instant that he is fulfilling
the letter of the law.

* Rousseau.

Obedience. 223

A lady, who was fond of having her house
well arranged, discovered, to the amazement of
her acquaintance, the art of making all her ser-
vants keep every thing in its place. Even in
the kitchen, from the most minute article to the
most unwieldy, every thing was invariably to be
found in its allotted station ; the servants were
thought miracles of obedience ; but, in fact,
they obeyed because it was the easiest thing
they could possibly do. Order was made more
convenient to them than disorder, and, with
their utmost ingenuity to save themselves
trouble, they could not invent places for every
thing more appropriate than those which had
been assigned by their mistress's legislative (Eco-
nomy. In the same manner we may secure the
07^derly obedience of children without exhaust-
ing their patience or our own. Rousseau ad-
vises, that children should be governed solely
by the necessity of circumstances ; but when he
had the management of a refractory child, he
found himself obliged to invent and arrange a
whole drama, by artificial experience to con-
vince his little pupil that he had better not
walk out in the streets of Paris alone ; and that,
therefore, he should wait till his tutor could
conveniently accompany him. llousseau had
prepared the neighbours on each side of the
street to make proper speeches as his pupil
3

224 Practical Education.

passed by their doors, which alarmed and piqued
the boy eiFectually. At length the child was
met, at a proper time, by a friend who had been
appointed to watch him ; and thus he was
brought home submissive. This scene, as Rous-
seau oljserves, was admirably well performed : *
but what occasion could there be for so much
contrivance and deceit ? If his pupil had not
been uncommonly deficient in penetration, he
would soon have discovered his preceptor in
some of his artifices ; then adieu both to obe-
dience and confidence. A false idea of the
pleasures of liberty misled Rousseau. Children
have not our abstract ideas of the pleasures of
liberty ; they do not, until they have suffered
from ill-judged restraints, feel any strong desire
to exercise what we call free will ; liberty is,
with them, tilie liberty of doing certain specific
things which thej have found to be agreeable ;
liberty is not the general idea of pleasure, in
doing whatever they will to do, Rousseau
desires, that ice should not let our pupil know
that in doin^ our will he is obedient to us. But
why ? Why should we not let a child know the
truth ? If we attempt to conceal it, we shall
only get into endless absurdities and difficulties.
Lord Kaimes tells us, that he Was acquainted

* Emilius, vol. i. p. 23. ^^

Obedience. 225 .

Vi^ith a couple, who in the education of their
family pursued as much as possible Rousseau's
plan. One evening, as the father vyas playing
at chess with a friend, one of his children, a boy
of about four years old, took a piece from the
board, and ran away to play with it. The father,
whose principles would not permit him to assert
his right to his own chessman, began to bargain
for his property with his son. " Harry," said
he, " let us have back the man, and there's an
" apple for you." The apple was soon de-
voured, and the child returned to the chess-
board, and kidnapped another chessman. What
this man's ransom might be we are not yet in-
formed ; JDut Lord Kaimes tells us, that the fa-
ther was obliged to suspend his game at chess
till his son was led away to his supper. Does
it seem just that parents should become slaves
to the liberties of their children ? If one set of
beings or another should sacrifice a portion of
happiness, surely, those who are the most use-
ful, and the most capable of increasing the know-
ledge and the pleasures of life, have some claim
to a preference ; and when the power is entirely
in their own hands, it is most probable that they
will defend their own interests. We shall not,
like many who have spoken of Rousseau, steal
from him after having abused him ; his remarks
upon the absurd and tyrannical restraints which
VOL. I. ♦ a

226 Practical Education.

are continually imposed upon children by the
folly of nurses and servants^ or by the imprudent
anxiety of parents and preceptors, are excellent ;
whenever Rousseau is in the right, his eloquence
is irresistible.

To determine what degree of obedience it '^
just to require from children, we must always
consider what degree of reason they possess :
whenever we can use reason, we should never
use force ; it is only whilst children are too
young to comprehend reason,* that we should
expect from them implicit submission. The
means which have been pointed out for teach-
ing the habit of obedience must not be depended
upon for teaching any thing more than the mere
habit. When children begin to reason, they do
not act merely from habit ; they will not be obe-
dient at this age, unless their understanding is
convinced that it is for their advantage to be so.
Wherever we can explain the reasons for any of
our requests, we should attempt it ; but when-
ever these cannot be fully explained, it is better
not to give a partial explanation ; it will be best
to say steadily, " You cannot understand this
" now, you will perhaps understand it some
" time hence." Whenever we tell children, that
we forbid them to do such and such things for

* Vol. i. p. 59.

Obedience, 121

any particular reason^ we must take care that
the reason assigned is adequate, and that it
will in all cases hold good. For instance, if we
forbid a boy to eat unripe fruit because it will
make him ill, and if afterwards the boy should
eat some unripe gooseberries without feeling ill
in consequence of his disobedience, he will
doubt the truth of the person who prohibited
unripe fruit ; he will rather trust his own partial
experience than any assertions. The idea of
hurting his health is a general idea, which he
does not yet comprehend. It is more prudent
to keep him out of the way of unripe gooseber-
ries than to hazard at once his obedience and
his integrity. We need not expatiate farther;
the instance we have given may be readily ap-
plied to all cases in which children have it in
their power to disobey with immediate impunity,'
and, what is still more dangerous, with the cer-
tainty of obtaining immediate pleasure. The
gratification of their senses, and the desire of
bodily exercise, ought never to be unnecessarily
restrained. Our pupils should distinctly per-
ceive that we wish to make them happy ; and
every instance, in which they discover that obe-
dience has really made them happier, will be
more in our favour than all the lectures we
could preach. From the past they will judge
of the future: children, who have for many years

ft2

228 Practical Education.

experienced that their parents have exacted
obedience only to such commands as proved to
be ultimately vs^ise and beneficial, will surely be
disposed from habit, from gratitude, and yet
more from prudence, to consult their parents in
all the material actions of their lives.

We may observe, that the spirit of contradic-
tion, which sometimes breaks out in young peo-
ple the moment they are able to act for themselves,
arises frequently from slight causes in their early
education. Children who have experienced that
submission to the will of others has constantly
made them unhappy, will necessarily, by reason-
ing inversely, imagine that felicity consists in fol-
lowing their own free will.

The French poet, Boileau, was made very un-
happy by neglect and restraint during his edu-
cation ; when he grew up, he never would
agree with those who talked to him of the
pleasures of childhood. =*^ " Peut on," disoit ce
poete amoureux de I'independance, " ne pas
^^ regarder comme un grand malheur le chagrin
" continuel et particulier a cet age de ne jamais
" faire sa volonte ?" It was in vain, continues
his biographer, to boast to him of the advantages
of this happy constraint which saves youth from

* Histoire des Membres de 1* Academic, par M. d'AIan-
bert. Tome troisieme, p. 24,

Obedience. 229

so many follies. " What signifies our knowing
^^ the value of our chains when we have shaken
"them off, if we feel nothing but their weight
" whilst we wear them ? " the galled poet used
to reply. Nor did Boileau enjoy his freedom,
though he thought with such horror of his
slavery. He declared, that if he had it in his
choice, either to be born again upon the hard
conditions of again going through his childhood,
or not to exist, he would rather not exist : but
he was not happy during any period of his exist-
ence ; he quarrelled with all the seasons of life ;
all seemed to him equally disagreeable : ^^ youth,
*^ manhood, and old age, are each subject," he
observed, " to impeteous passions, to care, and
" to infirmities." Hence we may conclude,
that the severity of his education had not suc^
ceeded in teaching him to submit philosophically
to necessity, nor yet in giving him much enjoy-
ment from that liberty which he so much coveted.
Thus it too often happens, that an imaginary
value is set upon the exercise of the free will by
those, who during their childhood have suffered
under injudicious restrictions. Sometimes the
love of free will is so uncontrolably excited,
even during childhood, that it breaks out, un-
fortunately both for the pupils and the preceptors,
in the formidable shape of obstinacy.

Of all the faults to which children are sub-

230 Practical Education,

jectj there is none which is more difficult to
cure, or more easy to prevent than obstinacy.
As it is early observed by those who are en-
gaged in education, it is sometimes supposed
to be inherent in the temper ; but, so far from
being naturally obstinate, infants show those
strong propensities to sympathy and imitation
which prepare them for an opposite character.
The folly of the nurse, however, makes an in-
temperate use of these happy propensities. She
perpetually torments the child to exert himself
for her amusement, all his senses and all his
muscles she commands. He must see, hear,
talk, or be silent, move or be still, when she
thinks proper; and often with the desire of
amusing her charge, or of showing him oif to
the company, she disgusts him with voluntary
exertion. Before young children have com-
pletely acquired the use of their limbs^ they
cannot perform feats of activity or of dexterity
at a moment's warning. Their muscles do not
instantaneously obey their will ; the efforts they
make are painful to themselves ; the awkward-
ness of their attempts is painful to others ; the
delay of the body is often mistaken for the re-
luctance of the mind, and the impatient tutor
pronounces the child to be obstinate, whilst all
the time he may be doing his utmost to obey.
Instead of growing angry with the helpless

I
I

Obedience. 23 1

child, it would be surely more wise to assist his
feeble and inexperienced efforts. If we press
him to make unsuccessful attempts, we shall
associate pain both with voluntary exertion and
with obedience.

Little W (a boy of three years old) was

one day asked by his father to jump. The
boy stood stock still. Perhaps he did not
know the meaning of the word jump. The
father, instead of pressing him farther, asked
several other children who happened to be in
the room to jump, and he jumped along with
them ; all this was done playfully. The little
boy looked on silently for a short time, and
seemed much pleased. " Papa jumps !" he ex-
claimed. His brother L lifted him up two

or three times, and he then tried to jump, and
succeeded : from sympathy he learned the
command of the muscles which were necessary
to his jumping and to his obedience. If this
boy had been importuned, or forced to exert
himself, he might have been thus taught obsti-
nacy, merely from the imprudent impatience of
the spectators. The reluctance to stop when a
child is once in motion is often mistaken for
obstinacy ; when he is running, singing, laugh-
ing, or talking, if you suddenly command him
to stop, he cannot instantly obey you. If we
reflect upon our own minds^ we may perceive

^32 Practical Education.

that we cannot, without considerable effort, turn
our thoughts suddenly from any subject on
which we have been long intent. If we have
been long in a carriage, the noise of the wheels
sounds in our ear, and we. seem to be yet going on
after the carriage has stopped. We do not pre-
tend to found any accurate reasoning upon ana-
logy; but we way observe, that the difficulty with
which our minds are stopped or put in motion
resembles the vis ineiHice of body.

W — — (three years old) had for some minutes
vociferated two or three words of a song, till the
noise could be no longer patiently endured ; his
father called to him, and desired that he would

not make so much noise. W paused for

a moment, but then went on singing the same

words. His brother said. Hush ! W »

paused for another second or two ; but then
went on with his roundelay ; in his countenance
there was not the slightest appearance of ill-
humour. One of his sisters put him upon a
board which was lying on the floor, and which
was a little unsteady : as he walked cautiously
along this board, his attention was occupied^ and
Jie forgot his song.

This inability suddenly to desist from any oc-
^cupation may easily grow; into obstinacy, be-
cause the pain of checking themselves will be
great in children, and this pain will be asso^

Obedience, , 233

ciated with the commands of those who govern
them ; it is better to stop them by presenting
new objects to their attention, than by the sti-
mulus of a peremptory voice. Children should
never be accused of obstinacy ; the accusation
cannot cure, but may superinduce the disease*
If, unfortunately, they have been suffered to con-
tract a disposition to this fault, it may be cured
by a little patience and good temper. We have
mentioned how example and sympathy may be
advantageously used ; praise and looks of aifec-
tion, which naturally express our feeling when
children do right, encourage the shghtest efforts
to obey : but we must carefully avoid showing
any triumph in our victory over yielding stub-
tornness. *

^^ Aye, I knew that you would do what we
^' desired at last, you might as well have done
*^ it at first," is a common nursery-maid's
speech, which is well calculated to pique the
pride of a half-subdued penitent. When chil-
dren are made ashamed of submission, they
will become intrepid, probably unconquerable,
rebels.

Neither rewards nor punishments will then
avail ; the pupil perceives that both the wit
and the strength of his master are set in compe-
tition with his; at the expense of a certain
degree of pain he has the power to resist as

234 Practical Educatmi.

long as he thinks proper, and there is scarcely
any degree of pain that a tutor dares to inflict,
which an obstinate hero is not able to endure;
with the spirit of a martyr he sustains reproaches
and torture. If, at length, the master changes
\ih tone, and tidies to soften and win the child to
his purpose his rewards are considered as bribes;
if the boy really thinks that he is in the right
to rebel, he must yield his sense of honour to
tihe force of temptation when he obeys. If he
has formed no such idea of honour, he perhaps
considers the reward as the price of submis-
sion ; and upon a future occasion he will know
how to raise that price by prolonging his show
of resistance. Where the child has formed a
falsvs idea of honour, his obstinacy is only mis-
taken resolution ; we should address ourselves
to his understanding, and endeavour to convince
him Oi^ his error. Where the understanding is
convinc^ed, and the habit of opposition still con-
tinues, we should carefully avoid calling his
false associations into action ; we should not ask
him to do any thing for which he has acquired
an habitual aversion ; we should alter our manner
of speaking to him, that neither the tones of our
voice, the words, or the looks which have been
his customary signals for resistance, may recall
the same feelings to his mind; placed in new
circumstances J he may acquire new habits, and

Obedience. 235

his old associations will in time be forgotten.
Sufficient time must however be allowed; we
may judge when it is prudent to try him on any
old, dangerous subjects, by many symptoms : by
observing the degree of alacrity with which he
obeys on different occasions ; by observing
what degree of command he has acquired over
himself in general ; by observing in what manner
he judges of the conduct and temper of other
children in similar circumstances ; by observing
whether the consciousness of his former self con-
tinues in full force. Children often completely
forget what they have been.

Where obstinacy arises from principle, if we
may use the expression, it cannot be cured by
the same means which are taken to cure that
species of the disease which depends merely
upon habit. The same courage and fortitude
which in one case we reprobate and try to con-
quer with all our might, in the other we admire
and extol. This should be pointed out to chil-
dren ; and, if they act from a love of glory, they,
will, as soon as they perceive the difference,
follow that course which will secure to them
the prize.

Charles XII. whom the Turks, when incensed
by his disobedience to the grand seignior, called
Demir-bash, or head of ir 072, showed early symp-
toms of this headstrong nature ; yet, in his child-

4

236 Practical Education,

hood, if his preceptor^ named but glory, any
thing could be obtained from Charles. Charles
had a great aversion to learning Latin, but when
he was told that the kings of Poland and Den-
mark understood it, he began to study it in good
earnest. We do not mean to infer, that emula-
tion with the kings of Poland and Denmark
was the best possible motive which Charles the
Twelfth's preceptor could have used, to make the
young prince conquer his aversion to Latin ; but
we would point out, that where the love of
glory is connected with obstinate temper, the
passion is more than a match for the temper.
Let us but enlighten this love of glory, and we
produce magnanimity in the place of obstinacy.
Examples, in conversation and in books, of great
characters who have not been ashamed to
change their opinions, and to acknowledge that
they have been mistaken, will probably make a
great impression upon young people ; they will
from these learn to admire candour, and will be
taught that it is viean to persist in the wrong.
Examples from books must however be also uni-
formly supported by examples in real life ; pre-
ceptors and parents must practise the virtues
which they preach. It is said, that the amiable
Fenelon acquired the most permanent influence

* Voltaire's Hist. Charles XII. p. 13.

Obedience. Cb37

over his pupil by the candour with which he
always treated him. Fenelon did not think that
he could lessen his dignity by confessing himself
to be in the wrong.

Young people who have quick abilities, and
who happen to live with those who are inferior
to them either in knowledge or in capacity, are
apt to become positive and self-willed ; they
measure all the world by the individuals with
whom they have measured themselves ; and, as
they have been convinced that they have been
in the right in many cases, they take it for
granted that their judgment must be always in-
fallible. This disease may be easily cured ; it
is only necessary to place the patient amongst
his superiors in intellect, his own experience
will work his cure : he liked to follow his will,
because his judgment had taught him that he
might trust more securely to the tact of his own
understanding, than to the decision of others ;
as soon as he discovers more sense in the argu-
ments of his companions, he will listen to them,
and if he finds their reason superior to his own,
he will submit. A preceptor, who wishes to
gain ascendancy over a clever, positive boy, must
reason with all possible precision, and must al-
ways show that he is willing to be decided by
the strongest arguments which can be produced.

238 Practical Education,

If he ever prophesies, he sets his judgment at
stake; therefore he should not prophesy about
matters of chance, but rather in affairs where he
can calculate with certainty. If his prophecies
are frequently accomplished, his pupil's confi-
dence in him will rapidly increase ; and if he
desires that confidence to be permanent, he will
not affect mystery, but he will honestly explain
the circumstances by which he formed his opi-
nions. Young people who are accustomed to
hear and to give reasons for their opinions, will
not be violent and positive in assertions ; they
will not think that the truth of any assertion can
be manifested by repeating over the same words
a thousand times ; they will not ask how many
people are of this or that opinion, but rather
what arguments are produced on each side.
There is very little danger that any people, whe-
ther young or old, should continue to be positive
who are in the habit of exercising their reason-
ing faculty.

It has been often observed, that extremely
good-humoured, complaisant children, when they
grow up, become ill-tempered ; and young men
who are generally liked in society as pleasant
companions, become surly, tyrannical masters in
their own families, positive about mere trifles,
and anxious to subjugate the wills of all who are

Obedience. 2SQ

anywise dependent upon them. This character
has been nicely touched by De Boissy in his
comedy called " Dehors Trompeurs."

We must observe, that whilst young people
are in company, and under the immediate in-
fluence of the excitements of novelty, numbers,
and dissipation, it is scarcely possible to form a
just estimate of the goodness of their temper.
Young men v^^ho are the most ready to yield
their inclinations to the humour of their com-
panions, are not therefore to be considered as
of really compliant dispositions; the idle or indo-
lent, who have no resources in their own minds,
and no independent occupations, are victims to
the yawning demon of Ennui the moment they
are left in solitude. They consequently dread
so heartily to be left alone, that they readily give
up a portion of their liberty to purchase the plea-
sures and mental support which society affords.
When they give up their wishes, and follow the
lead of the company, they in fact give up but
very little ; their object is amusement, and this
obtained, their time is sacrificed without regret.
On the contrary, those who are engaged in lite-
rary or professional pursuits set a great value
upon their time, and feel considerable reluctance
to part with it without some adequate compen-
sation ; they must consequently be less com-
plaisant companions, and by the generality of

240 Practical Education.

superficial observers would be thougbt perhaps
less complying in their tempers than the idle
and dissipated. But when the idle man has
passed the common season for dissipation, and is
settled in domestic life, his spirits flag from the
want of his usual excitements ; and as there are
no amusements in his own family to be pur-
chased by the polite sacrifice of his opinion or
his will, he is not inclined to complaisance ; the
pleasure of exercising his free will becomes im-
portant in his eyes; he has few pleasures and
of those few he is tenacious. He has been ac-
customed to submit to others in society, he is
proud to be master at home ; he has few emo-
tions, and the emotion caused by the exertion
of command becomes agreeable and necessary to
him. Thus many of the same causes which
make a young man a pleasant companion abroad,
tend naturally to make him a tyrant at home.
This perversity and positiveness of temper ulti-
mately arise from the want of occupation, and from
deficient energy of mind. We may guard against
these evils by education ; when we see a play-
ful, active child, we have little fear of his temper.
" Oh, he will certainly be good-tempered, he is
*^ the most obedient, complying creature in the
*' world, he'll do any thing you ask him." But
let us cultivate his understanding, and give him
tastes which shall occupy and interest him

3

Obedience. 241

agreeably through Hfe, or else this sweet com-
plying temper will not last till he is thirty.

An ill-cured obstinacy of temper, when it
breaks out after young people are arrived at
years of discretion, is terrible. Those who at-
tempt to conquer obstinacy in children by bodily
pain, or by severe punishments of any kind,
often appear to succeed, and to have entirely
eradicated the disease, when in fact it has only
remitted for a time. As soon as the child that
is intimidated by force or fear is relieved from
restraint, he will resume his former habits : he
may change the mode of showing it, bat the dis-
positipn will continue the same. It will appear
in various parts of the conduct, as the limbs of
the giant appeared unexpectedly at different
periods, and in different parts of the Castle of
Otranto.

VOL. I.

243 Practicul Education*

CHAPTER VIII.

On Truth

It is not necessary here to pronounce a pane-
gyric upon truth ; its use and valu€ is thorough-
ly understood by all the world; but we shall
endeavour to give some practical advice, which
may be of service in educating children, not
only to the love, but to to the habits, of integrity.
These are not always found^ as they ought to
be, inseparable. ^

Rousseau's eloquence, and Locke's reason-
ing, have sufficiently reprobated, and it is to
be hoped have exploded, the system of lectur-
ing children upon morality ; of giving them pre-
cepts and general maxims which they do not
understand, and which they cannot apply. We
shall not produce long quotations from books
which are in every body's hands.* There is

* We refer to Locke's Thoughts concerning Education,
-sod Rousseau's tmilius, vol. i.

truth. 243

one particular in which Rousseau especially,
and most other authors who have written
upon education, have given very dangerous
counsel ; they have counselled parents to teach
truth by falsehood. The privilege of using con*
trivance, and ingenious deceptions, has been
uniformly reserved for preceptors ; and the pu-
pils, by moral delusions^ and the theatric effect
of circumstances treacherously arranged, are to
be duped, surprised, and cheated, into virtue.
The dialogue between the gardener and Emilius
about the Maltese melon-seed is an instance of
this method of instruction : Honest Robert, the
gardener, in concert with the tutor, tells poor
Emilius a series of lies, prepares a garden,
*' choice Maltese melon-seed," and " worthless
" beans," all to cheat the boy into just notions
of the rights of property, and the nature of ex-
change and barter.

Part of the artificial course of experience in
that excellent work on education, Adele and
Theodore, is defective u}K>n the same principle.
There should be no moral delusions ; no artifi"
cial course of experience ; no plots laid by pa-
rents to make out the truth ; no listening fathers,
mothers, or governesses ; no pretended confi-
dence, or perfidious friends; in one word, no
falsehood should be practised. That magic which
cheats the senses, at the same time confounds

244 Practical Education,

the understanding. The spells of Prospero, the
strangenesses of the Isle, perplex and' confound
the senses and understanding of all who are sub-
jected to his magic ? till at length, worked by
force of wonders into credulity, his captives de-
clare that they will believe any thing; *^ that
" there are men dewlapt like bulls; " and '^ what
" else does want credit," says the Duk&Antho-
nio, " come to me, and I'll be sworn 'tis true."

Children, whose simplicity has been practised
upon by the fabling morality of their preceptors,
begin by feeling something like the implicit cre-
dulity of Anthonio ; but the arts of their precep-
tors are quickly suspected by their subjects, and
the charm is for everreversed. When once a
child detects you in falsehood, you lose his con-
fidence ; his incredulity will then be as extra-
vagant as his former belief was gratuitous. It is
in vain to expect, by the most eloquent mani-
festoes, or by the most secret leagues offensive
and defensive, to conceal your real views, senti-
ments, and actions, from children. Their inte-
rest keeps their attention continually awake ;
not a word, not a look, in which they are con-
cerned, escapes them ; they see, hear, and com-
bine, with sagacious rapidity : if falsehood be in
the wind, detection hunts her to discovery.

Honesty is the best policy, must be the maxim
in eiflucation, as well as in all the other affairs

Truth. 245

of life. We must not only be exact in speaking
truth to our pujiils, but to every body else ; to
acquaintance, to servants, to friends, to enemies.
It is not here meant to enter any overstrained
protest against the common phrases and forms
of politeness ; the current coin may not be pure,
but when once its alloy has been ascertained
and its value appreciated, there is no fraud,
though there may be some folly, in continuing
to trade upon equal terms with our neighbours,
with money of high nominal, and scarcely any
real, value. No fraud is committed by a gentle-
man s saying that he is not at home, because no
deception is intended ; the words are silly, but
they mean, and are understood to mean, nothing
more than that the person in question does not
choose to see the visitors who knock at his door,
" I am, Sir, your obedient and humble servant,"
at the end of a letter, does not mean that the
person who signs the letter is a servant^ or hum-
ble, or obedient, but it simply expresses that he
knows how to conclude his letter, according to
the usual form of civility. Change this absurd
phrase, and welcome; but do not let us, in the
spirit of Draco, make no distinction between er-
rors and crimes. The foibles of fashion or folly
are not to be treated with the detestation due to
hypocrisy and falsehood ; if small faults are to
incur such grievous punishments^ there can, irj-

246 Practical Education*

deed, be none found sufficiently severe for great
crimes : great crimes, consequently, for want of
adequate punishment, will increase, and the little
faults that have met with disproportionate per-
secution, will become innocent, and compara-
tively amiable, in the eyes of commiserating
human nature. It is not difficult to explain to
young people the real meaning, or rather the
nonsense, of a few complimentary phrases ; their
integrity will not be increased or diminished by
i&ither saying, or omitting to say, *' I am much
j^: ^* obliged to you," or " I shall be very happy to
If *^ see you at dinner," &c. We do not mean to
include in the harmless list of compliments any
expressions that are meant to deceive ; the com-
mon custom of the country, and of the society
in which we live, sufficiently regulates the style
of complimentary language ; and there are few
so ignorant of the world as seriously to misun-.
derstand this, or to mistake civihty for friend-
ship.

There is a story told of a Chinese mandarin^
who paid a visit to a friend at Paris, at the time
when Paris was the seat of politeness. His well-
bred host, on the first evening of his arrival, gave
bim a handsome supper, lodged him in the best
bedchamber, and when he wished him a good
night, amongst other civil things, said, he hoped
the mandarin would, during his stay at Paris,

Truth. 24{1

consider that house as his own. Early the next
morning the poHte Parisian was wakened by the
sound of loud hammering in the mandarin's bed-
chamber; on entering the room, he found the
mandarin and some masons hard at work throw-
ing down the walls of the house. " You rascals,
*' ar^ you mad r" exclaimed the Frenchman to
the masons. " Not at all, my dear friend," said
the Chinese man, soberly ; *^ I set the poor fe|-
" }ows to work ; this room is too small for my
** taste ; you see I have lost no time in availing
" myself of your goodness. Did not you desire
*^ me to use this house as if it were my own,
" during my stay at Paris?" '^ Assuredly, my
'^ dear friend, and so I hope you will," replied
the French gentleman ; " the only misfortune
^^ here is, that / did not understand Chinese, and
" that / had no interpreter.'. They found %h
interpreter, or a Chinese dictionary, and when
the Parisian phrase was properly translated, the
mandarin, who was an honest man, begged his
polite host's pardon for having pulled down the
partition. It was rebuilt ; the mandarin learned
French, and the two friends continued upon the
' best terms possible with each other during the
remainder of the visit.

The Chesterfieldian system of endeavouring
to please by dissimulation, is obviously distin-
guishable by any common capacity from the

248 Practical Education.

usual forms of civility. There is no hope of
educating young people to a love of integrity
in any family where this practice is adopted ; if
children observe that their parents deceive
common acquaintance, by pretending to like
the company, and to esteem the characters^ of
those whom they really think disagreeable and
contemptible, how can they learn to respect
truth ? how can children believe in the praise of
their parents, if they detect them in continual
flattery towards indifferent people ? It may be
thought by latitudinarians in politeness, that
we are too rigid in expecting this strict adherence
to truth from people who live in society ;
it may be said, that in Practical Education no
such Utopian ideas of perfection should be sug-
gested. If we thought them Utopian, we cer-
tainly should not waste our time upon them ;
but we do not here speak theoretically of what
may be done, we speak of what has been done.
Without the affectation of using a more sanc-
tified language than other people, without
departing from the common forms of society,
without any painful, awkward efforts, we be-
lieve that parents may, in all their conversation
in private and in public, set their children the
uniform example of truth and integrity.

We do not mean that the example of parents
can alone produce this effect ; a number of other

Truth. 249

circumstances must be combined. Servants
must bave no communication with children,
if you wish to teach them the habit of speaking
truth. The education, and custom, and situation
of servants, are at present such, that it is
morally impossible to depend upon their veracity
in their intercourse with children. Servants
think it good-natured to try to excuse and
conceal all the little faults of children, to give
them secret indulgences, and even positively to
deny facts, in order to save them from blame or
punishment. Even when they are not fond of
the children, their example must be dangerous,
because servants do not scruple to falsify for
their own advantage : if they break any thing,
what a multitude of equivocations! if they
neglect any thing, what a variety of excuses !
What evasions in action, or in words, do they
continually invent!

It may be said, that as the Spartans taught
their children to detest drunkenness, by showing
them intoxicated Helots, we can make false-
hood odious and contemptible to our pupils, by
the daily example of its mean deformity. But
if children, before they can perceive the general
advantage of integrity, aud before they can
understand the utility of truth, see the partial
immediate success of falsehood, how can they
avoid believing in their own experience r If
4

^oO Practical Education.

they see that servants escape blame, and screen
themselves from punishment, by telling false-
hoods, they not only learn that falsehood pre-
serves from pain, but they feel obHged to those
who practise it for their sakes ; thus it is con-
nected with the feelings of affection and of
gratitude in their hearts, as well as with a sense
of pleasure and safety. When servants have
e^cacted promises from their proteges, those pro-
mises cannot be broken without treachery; thus
dieceit brings on deceit, and the ideas of truth
and falsehood becorpe confused and contradic-
tory. In the chapter upon Servants we have
expatiated upon this subject, and have endea-
voured to point out how all communication
between children and servants may be most
effectually prevented. To that chapter without
further repetition we refer. And now that we
have adjusted the preliminaries concerning
parents and servants, we rnay proceed with
jGonfidence.

When young children first begin to speak,
from not having a sufficient number of words to
express their ideas, or from not having annexed
precise ideas to the words which they are taught
to use, they frequently make mistakes, which
are attributed to the desire of deceiving. We
should not precipitately suspect them of false-
hood ; it is some time before they perfectly

Truth. - 261

understand what we mean by truth. Small
deviations should not be marked with too much
rigour ; but whenever a child relates exactly any
thing which he has seen, heard, or felt, we
should listen with attention and pleasure, and
we should not show the least doubt of his vera-
city. Rousseau is perfectly right in advising
tiiat children should never be questioned about
any circumstances in which it can be their inte-
rest to deceive. We should, at least, treat
children with the same degree of wise lenity,
which the English law extends to all who have
arrived at years of discretion. No criminal is
bound to accuse himself. If any mischief has
been committed, we should never, when w©
are uncertain by whom it has been done, either
directly accuse^ or betray injurious suspicions.
We should neither say to the child, ^^ I believe
*^ you have done this," nor '^ I believe you hav«
" not done this ; " we should say nothing ; the
mischief is done, we cannot repair it : because
a glass is broken, we need not spoil a child ; we
may put glasses out of his reach in future. If
it should, however, happen, that a child volun-
»tarily comes to us with a history of an accident,
may no love of goods or chattels, of windows, of
china, or even of looking-glasses, come in com-
petition with our love of truth. An angry
word, an angry look, naay intimidate the child,

252f ^ Pi^actical Education,

who has summoned all his little courage to
make this confession. It is not requisite that
parents should pretend to be pleased and grati-
fied with the destruction of their furniture, but
they may, it is to be hoped, without dissimula-
tion, show that they set more value upon the
integrity of their children, than upon a looking-
glass, and that they have sufficient strength of
mind to " keep their temper still, though china
" fall."

H , one day when his father and mother

were absent from home, broke a looking-glass,
Ab soon as he heard the sound of the returning
carriage, he ran and posted himself at the hall
door. His father, the moment he got out of the
carriage, beheld his erect figure, and pale, but
intrepid countenance. ^^ Father," said the boy,
" I have broke the best looking-glass in your
" house !" His father assured him, that he would
rather all the looking-glasses in his house should
be broken, than that one of his children should

attempt to make an excuse. H was most

agreeably relieved from his anxiety by the
kindness of his father's voice and manner, and
still more so, perhaps, by perceiving that he rose
in esteem. When the glass was examined, it
appeared that the boy had neglected to produce
all the circumstances in his own favour. Be-
fore he had begun to play at ball, he had the

Truths 253

precaution to turn the back of the looking-glass
towards him ; his ball, however, accidentally
struck against the wooden back, and broke the

glass. H did not make out this favourable

state of the case for himself at first; he told it
simply after the business was settled, seeming
much more interested about the fate of the glass,
than eager to exculpate himself.

There is no great danger of teaching chil-
dren to do mischief by this indulgence to their
accidental misfortunes. When they break, or
waste any thing, from pure carelessness, let
them, even when they speak the truth about it,
suffer the natural consequences of their care-
lessness ; but at the same time praise their in-
tegrity, and let them distinctly feel the differ-
ence between the slight inconvenience to which
they expose themselves by speaking the truth,
and the great disgrace to which falsehood would
subject them. The pleasure of being esteemed
and trusted is early felt, and the consciousness
of deserving confidence is delightful to children ;
but their young fortitude and courage should
never be exposed to severe temptations. It is
not sufficient to excite an admiration of truth
by example, by eloquent praise, or by the just
rewards of esteem and affection ; we must take
care to form the habits at the same time that
we inspire the love of this virtue. Many

^54 Practical Education.

children admire truth, and feel all the sfiame of
telling falsehoods, who yet, either from habit or
from fear, continue to tell lies. We must ob-
serve, that though the taste for praise is strong in
childhood, yet it is not a match for any of the
bodily appetites, when they are strongly excited.
Those children, who are restrained as to the choice,
or the quantity, of their food, usually think that
eating is a matter of vast consequence, and they
are strongly tempted to be dishonest to gratify
their appetites. Children do not understand
the prudential maxims concerning health, upon
which such restraints are founded ; and if they
can " by any^ indirection" obtain things which
gratify their palate, they will. On the contrary,
young people who are regularly let to eat and
drink as much as they please, can have no tom|>-
tation from hunger and thirst to deceive: if they
partake of the usual family meals, and if there
are no whimsical distinctions between whole-
some and unwholesome dishes, or epicurean
^distinctions between rarities and plain food, the
imagination and the pride of children will not
be roused about eating. Their pride is piqued
if they perceive that they are prohibited from
touching what grown up people are privileged to
eat; their imagination is set to work by seeing
any extraordinary difference made by judges of
eating between one species of food and another*
.2

»

Truth. • 2^5

In families where a regularly good table is kept,
children accustomed to the sight and taste of all
kinds of food are seldom delicate, capricious,
or disposed to exceed ; but in houses where
entertainments are made from time to time with
great bustle and anxiety, fine clothes and fine
company-manners, and company-faces, and all
that politeness can do to give the appearance of
festivity, deceive children, and make them ima-
gine that there is some extraordinary joy in see-
ing a greater number of dishes than usual upon
the table. Upon these occasions, indeed, the
pleasure is to them substantial ; they eat more,
they eat a greater variety, and of things thiit
please them better, than usual ; the pleasure of
eating is associated with unusual cheerfulness,
and thus the imagination and the reality con-
spire to make them epicures. To children in
such a situation the temptations to deceive about
sweetmeats and dainties are beyond measure
great, especially as ill-bred strangers commonly
show their affection for thfem by pressing thetti
to eat what they iare not allowed to say " if ifou
^^ please'' to. Rousseau thinks all. children a^
gluttons. All children may be rendered gluttOtiS ;
but few, who are properly treated with respect to
food, and who have any literary tastes, can be ill
danger of continuing to be fond of eating. We
therefore, without hesitation, recommend it to

256 Practical Education.

parents never to hazard the truth and honour of
their pupils hy prohibitions, which seldom pro-
duce any of the effects that are expected.

Children are sometimes injudiciously re-
strained with regard to exercise ; they are re-
quired to promise to keep within certain boun-
daries when they are sent out to play ; these
promises are often broken with impunity, and
thus the children learn habits of successful de-
ceit. Instead of circumscribing their play-
grounds, as they are sometimes called, by. narr
row inconvenient limits, we should allow them
as much space as we can with convenience, and
at alt events exact no promises. We should ab-
solutely make it impossible for them to go, with-
out detection, into any place which we forbid.
It requires some patience and activity in precep-
tors to take all the necessary precautions in issu-
ing orders ; but these precautions will be more
useful in preserving the integrity of their pupils
than the most severe punishments that can be
devised. We are not so unreasonable as to ex-
pect, with some theoretic writers on educa-
tion, that tutors and parents should sacrifice the
whole of their time to the convenience, amuse-
ment, and education of their pupils. This
would be putting one set of beings " sadly over
** the head of another : " but if parents would,
as much as possible^ mix their occupations and

Truth. 257

Tecreations with those of their children, besides
many other advantages which have been else-
where pointed out with respect to the improve-
ment of the understanding, they would secure
them from many temptations to falsehood.
They should be encouraged to talk freely of all
their amusements to their parents, and to ask
them for whatever they want to complete their
little inventions. Instead of banishing all the
freedom of wit and humour, by the austerity of
his presence, a preceptor, with superior talents,
and all the resources of property in his favour,
might easily become the arbiter deliciarum of his
pupils.

When young people begin to taste the plea-
sures of praise, and to feel the strong excitations
of emulation and ambition, their integrity is ex-
posed to a new species of temptation. They
are tempted, not only by the hope of obtaining
'^ well-earned praise," but by the desire to ob-
tain praise without the labour of earning it. In
large schools, where boys assist each other in
their literary exercises, and in all private families
where masters are allowed to show off' the ac-
complishments of young gentlemen and ladies,
there are so many temptations to fraudulent ex-
hibitions, that we almost despair of guarding
against their consequences. The best possible
method is to inspire children with a generous

VOL. I. s

258 Practical Education,

contempt for flattery, and to teach them to judge
impartially of their own merits. If we arc ex-
act in the measure of approbation which we
bestow, they will hence form a scale by which
they can estimate the sincerity of other people.
It is said=*^ that the preceptor of the duke of Bur-
gundy succeeded so well in inspiring him with
disdain for unmerited praise, that when the
duke was only nine years old, he one day called
his tutor to account for having concealed some
of his childish faults ; and when this promising
boy, this singular prince, was asked '^ why he
" disliked one of his courtiers," he answered,
" Because he flatters me." Anecdotes such as
these will make a useful impression upon chil-
dren. The life of Cyrus, in the Cyropaedia;
several passages in Plutarch's Lives ; and the
lively, interesting picture which Sully draws
of his noble-hearted master's love of truth, will
strongly command the. admiration of young peo-
ple, if they read them at a proper time of life.
We must, however, wait for this proper time ;
for if these things are read too early, they lose
all their effect. Without any lectures upon the
beauty of truth, we may, now and then in con-

♦ V. the Life of the Duke of Burgundy, in Madame de la
Fite's agreeable and instructive work for children, " Contes,
" PraiW|B», ^t ^ntretiens, &c.*'

Truth. 1^59

versation, when occurrences in real life naturally
lead to the subject, express with energy our
esteem for integrity. The approbation which
we bestow upon those who give proofs of inte-
grity should be (jiiite in a different tone, in n
much higher style of praise, than any comn^^ii^r
dations for trifljng accomplishments ; hence
children will become more ambitious to obtain
a reputation for truth, than for ^ny other |f^s
honourable and less l)pi)Oured qualification.

We will venture to giye two or three glight
instances of the unaffected U^ih and simplicity
pf mind which we have seen in children edu-
cated upon these principles. No good-natured
reader will suspect, that they are produced from
ostentation : whenever the children, who are
mentioned, see thi$ jn print, it J5 te^ to .o^ie ^hat
tliey will not be surprised dX their own good
deeds. They will be a little surprised, probably
that it should have been thought worth while to
record things, which are only what they see and
feel every day. It is this character of ^very-day
goodness which we wish to represent ; aot ^.ny
fine thoughts, fine sentiipents, or fine action^^
which cojpae out for holiday admiration. We
wish that parents, in reading any of the^e little
anecdotes, may never .excl.aini, ^\ Oh, that'^
" charming, that's surprising for q. child I " but
we wish that they m^y sometimes smile, an^

s 2

260 Practical Education.

say, " That's very natural ; I am sure that is per-
" fectly true; my little boy, or my little girl, say
" and do just such things continually."

March, 1792. We were at Clifton ; the ri-
ver Avon ran close under the windows of our
house in Prince's Place, and the children used
to be much amused at looking at the vessels
which came up the river. One night a ship,
that was sailing by the windows, fired some of
her guns ; the children, who were looking out of
the windows, were asked " why the light was
" seen when the guns were fired, before the noise

^^ was heard ? " C , who at this time was

nine years old, answered, " Because light comes
" quicker to the eye, than sound to the ear."
Her father was extremely pleased with this an-
swer: but just as he was going to kiss her, the
little girl said, *' Father, the reason I knew

*^ it, was that L (her elder brother) had told

*^ it to me just before."

There is, it is usu'ally found, most temptation
for children to deceive when they are put in
competition with each other, when their ambi-
tion is excited by the same object ; but if the
transient glory of excelling in quickness, and
abilities of any sort, be much inferior to the per-
manent honour which is secured by integrity,
there is even in competition no danger of unfair

'3 "^ ' ' ,

Truth. 261

March, 1792. — One evening called hig

children round the tea-table, and told them the
following story, which he had just met with in
" The Curiosities of Literature."

When the queen of Sheba went to visit king
Solomon, she one day presented herself before
his throne with a wreath of real flowers in one
hand, and a wreath of artificial flowers in the
other hand ; the artificial flowers were made so
exactly to resemble nature, that at the distance
at which they were held from Solomon it was
scarcely possible that his eye could distinguish
any difference between them and the natural
flowers ; nor could he, at the distance at which
they were held from him, know them asunder
by their smell. " Which of these two wreaths,"
demanded the queen of Sheba, ^* is the work of
" nature ?" Solomon reflected for some minutes,

and how did he discover which was real ? S

(fi.\Q years old) replied, " Perhaps he went out
" of the room very softly, and if the woman
^^ stood near the door, as he went near her he
" might see better''

Father. But Solomon was not to move from
his place.

S . Then he might wait till the woman

was tired of holding them, and then perhaps she
might lay them down on the table^ ^nd then
perhaps he might see better.

26i Practical Education,

Father. Well, C- -, what do you say ?

C- . I think he might h^ve looked at the

§talks, and have sfeen which looked stift' like
wire, and which were beht down by the weight
of the natural flowers.

Pather. Well, H— ?

H' (ten years old). I think he might

s6nd for a great pair of bellows, and blow, blow,
till the real leaves dropped off.

Father. But would it not have been some-
^Vhat uncivil of Solomon to blow, blow, with his
great pair of bellows, full in the queen of Sheba's
face ? *

■"'"'H (doubting). Yes, yes. Well, then he

itltght have sent for a telescope, or a magnifying
glass, and looked through it ; and then he could
have seen which were the real flowers, and which
^ete artificial.

Father. Well, B— — -, and what do 3^ou say ?

E- (eleven years old). He might haVe

Vvaited till the queen moved the flowers, and
ttien, if he listened, he tnight hear the rustling of
the artificial ones.

Father. S- , have you any thing tnbre to

say ?

S — — Repeated the same thing that B

had skid ; his attention ivas dissipated by hear-
ing the other children speat. During tbis pause
whilst S was trying to collect his thoughfs>

Truth. 263

Mrs. E whispered to somebody near her,

and accidentally said the word onimal loud
enough to be overheard.

Father. Well H , you look as if you had

something to say ?

H . Father, I heard my mother say some-
thing, and that made me think of the rest.

Mrs. E shook hands with H , and

praised him for this instance of integrity. H— —
then said, that, " he supposed Solomon thought
" of some animal which would feed upon
** flowers, and sent it to the two nosegays ; and
^^ then the animal would stay upon the real
*^ flowers."

Father. What animal ?

H . A fly.

Father. Think again.

H . A bee.

Father. Yes.

The story says, that Solomon, seeing some
bees hover about the window, ordered the win-
dow to be thrown open, and watched upon
which wreath of flowers the bee settled.

When children have formed habits of speaking
truth, and when we see that these habits are
grown quite easy to them, we may venture to
question them about their thoughts and feel-
ings ; this must, however, be done with great
caution, but without the appearance of anxiety
4

204 Practical Education.

or suspicion. Children are alarmed if they see
that you are very anxious a:nd impatient for their
answer ; they think that they hazard much by
their reply; they hesitate and look eagerly in
your face, to discover by your countenance what
they ought to think and feel, and what sort of
answer you expect. All who are governed by
any species of fear are disposed to equivocation.
Amongst the lower class of Irish labourers, and
under-tenants^ a class of people who are much
oppressed, you can scarcely meet with any man
who will give you a direct answer to the most
indifferent question ; their whole ingenuity, and
they have a great deal of ingenuity, is upon the
qui vive with you the instant you begin to speak ;
they either pretend not to hear, that they may
gain time to think, whilst you repeat your ques-
tion, or they reply to you with a fresh question
to draw 6ut your remote meaning ; for they,
judging by their own habits, always think you
have a remote meaning, and they never can be-
lieve that your words have no intention to en-
snare : simplicity puzzles them much more than
wit. For instance, if you were to ask the most
direct and harmless question, as, '' Did it rain
" yesterday?" the first answer would probably
be, " Is it yesterday you mean ? " " Yes."
^^ Yesterday I No, please your honour, I was
ff not at the bog at all yesterday. Wasn't I after

Truth. 2Q5

'^ setting my potatoes r Sure I did not know
" your honour wanted me at all yesterday.
" Upon my conscience there's not a man in the
*^ country, let alone all Ireland, I*d sooner serve
^^ than your honour, any day in the year ; and
^^ they have belied me that went behind my
" back to tell your honour the contrary. If your
" honour sent after me, sure I never got the
*' word^ I'll take my affidavit, or I'd been at the
" bog." " My good friend, I don't know what
" you mean about the bog, I only ask you whe-
^^ ther it rained yesterday." " Please your ho^
" nour, I couldn't get a car and horse any way,
*^ to draw home my little straw, or I'd have
'' had the house thatched long ago." " Cannot
^' you give me a plain answer to this plain ques-
'^ tion? Did it rain yesterday?" " Oh sure, I
" wouldn't go to tell your honour a He about
*' the matter. Sarrah, much it rained yesterday
'' after twelve o'clock, barring a few showers ;
*^ but in the night there was a great fall of rain
^^ any how ; and that was the reason prevented
" my going to Dublin yesterday, for fear the
* mistress's band-box should get wet upon my
" car. Biit, please your honour, if ybur ho-
*^ nour's displeased about it, I'll not be waiting
" for a loading ; ril take my car and go to Dub-
*^ lin to-morrow for the slates, if that be what
*/ your honour means. Oh, sure, I would not

266 Practical Education.

^' tell a lie for the entire price of the slates ; I
** know very well it didn't rain, to call rain, yes-
" terday. But after twelve o'clock, I don't say
*• I noticed it one way or other.'*

In this perverse and ludicrous method of beat-
ing about the bush, the man would persist till
he had fairly exhausted your patience; and all
this he would do partly from cunning, and partly
from that apprehension of injustice which he has
been taught to feel by hard experience. The
effects of the example of their parents is early
and most srikingly visible in the children of
this class of people in Ireland. The children,
who are remarkably quick and intelligent, are
universally addicted to lying: we do not here
scruple or hesitate in the choice of our terms,
because we are convinced that this unqualified
assertion would not shock the feelings of the
parties concerned ; these poor children are not
brought up to think falsehood a disgrace ; they
are praised for the ingenuity with which they
escape from the cross-examination of their supe-
riors ; and their capacities are admired in propor-
tion to the aculeness, or, as their parents pro-
nounce it, ^cuteness of their equivocating replies.
Sometimes (the gossoon) the little boy of the
family is dispatched by his mother to the land-
lord's neighbouring bog or turf rick, to bring
hojjie in their phraseology, in ours to steals a

Truth. 267

few tiiff: if, upon this expedition, the little
Spartan be detected, he is tolerably certain of
being whipped by his mother, or some of his
friends, upon his return home. " Ah, ye little
« brat ! and what made ye tell the gentleman
*^ when be met ye, ye rogue, that ye were going
" to the rick ? and what business had ye to
" go and belie me to his honour, ye unnatural
" piece of goods ! Til teach you to make mis-
" chief through the country ! So I will. Have
** ye got no better sense and manners at this
^* time o'day, than to behave, when one trusts
'^ ye abroad, so like an innocent ? " An innocent
in Ireland, as formerly in England, is synony-
mous with a fool. " The fair and innocent shall
*' still believe."

Pleasure and gaiety are so strongly associated
in the minds of these children with deceit, that
they sometimes expect the very people, who
suffer by their dishonesty, should sympathise in
the self-complacency they feci from roguery,
A gentleman riding near his own house in Ire-
land, saw a cow's head and fore feet appear at
the top of a ditch through a gap in the hedge by
the road's side, at the same time he heard a
voice alternately threatening and encouraging
*the cow : the gentleman rode up closer to the
scene of ac'tiou, and he saw a boy's bead appear
behind the cow. " My good boy,** said he.

268 Practical Education,

« that's a fine cow." " Oh, faith, that she is,"
repHed the boy, *' and I'm teaching her to get
^^ her own living, please your honour." The
gentleman did not precisely understand the
meaning of the expression, and had he directly
asked for an explanation, would probably have
died in ignorance ; but the boy, proud of his
cow, encouraged an exhibition of her talents :
she was made to jump across the ditch several
times, and this adroitness in breaking through
fences was termed *^ getting her own living."
As soon as a cow*s education is finished, she
xnay be sent loose into the world to provide for
herself; turned to graze in the poorest pasture,
she will be able and wilhng to live upon the fat
of the land ; and what is scarcely credible, this
character is openly given of a cow, to enhance
her value at a fair, by one poor person to another
of his own rank.

It is curious to observe how regularly the same
moral causes produce the same temper and cha-
racter ; we talk of climate, and frequently attri-
bute to climate the different dispositions of dif-
ferent nations ; the climate of Ireland, and that
of the West-Indies, are not precisely similar ; yet
the following description, which Mr. Edwards,
in his history of the West-Indies, gives of the
propensity to falsehood amongst the negro slaves,
might stand word for word for a character of that

Truth. 269

class of the Irish people who, till very lately,
actually, not metaphorically, call themselves
slaves.

" If a negro is asked even an indifferent ques-
" tion by his master, he seldom gives an imme-
" diate reply ; but affecting not to understand
*^ what is said, compels a repetition of the ques-
" tion, that he may have time to consider, not
" what is the true answer, but what is the most
" politic one for him to give."

Mr. Edwards assures us, that many of these
unfortunate negroes learn cowardice and false-
hood after they become slaves. When they first
come from Africa many of them show " a frank
" and fearless temper;"* but all distinction of
character amongst the native Africans is soon
lost under the levelHng influence of slavery.
Oppression and terror necessarily produce mean-
ness and deceit in all climates, and in all ages;
and wherever fear is the governing motive in
education, we must expect to find in children a
propensity to dissimulation, if not confirmed ha-
bits of falsehood. Look at the true-born Briton
under the government of a tyrannical pedagogue,
and listen to the language of inborn truth ; in
the whining tone, in the pitiful evasions, in the
stubborn falsehoods which you hear from the

* Edward's History of the West-Indies, vol. ii.

270 Practical Education.

schoolboy, can you discover any of that innate
dignity of soul which is the boasted national cha-
racteristic ? Look again ; look at the same boy
in the company of those who inspire no terror ;
in the company of his school-fellows, of^ his
friends, of his parents ; would you know him to
be the same being ? his countenance is open,
his attitude erect, his voice firm, his language
free and fluent, his thoughts are upon his lips,
he speaks truth without effort, without fear.
Where individuals are oppressed, or where they
believe that they are oppressed, they combine
against their oppressors, and oppose cunning and
falsehood to power and force ; they think them-
gelves released from the compact of truth with
their masters, and bind themselves in a strict
league with each other; thus schoolboys hold
no faith with their schoolmaster, though they
would think it shameful to be dishonourable
amongst one another. We do not think that
these maxims are the peculiar growth of schools ;
in private families the same feelings are to be
found under the same species of culture : if pre-
ceptors or parents are unjust or tyrannical, their
pupils will contrive to conceal from theoi thei;*
actions and their thoughts. On the contrary,
in families where sincerity has been encouraged
by the voice of praise and affection, a generous
freedom of conversation an.i pptvsLt^jji^.ruce ap-

Truth. 271

pears, and the young people talk to each other,
and to their parents, without distinction or re-
serve ; without any distinction but such as supe-
rior esteem and respect dictate : these are feel-
ings totally distinct from servile fear ; these feel-
ings inspire the love of truth, the ambition to
acquire and to preserve character.

The value of a character for truth should be
distinctly felt by children in their own family :
whilst they were very young, ' we advised that
their integrity should not be tempted ; as they
grow up, trust should by degrees be put in
them, and we should distinctly explain to them
that our confidence is to be deserved before it
can be given, our belief in any person's truth
is not a matter of affection, but of experience
amd necessity; we cannot doubt the assertions
of any person whom we have found to speak
uniformly the truth ; we cannot believe any
person, let us wish to do it ever so much, if we
have aetected him in falselioods. Before we
have had experience of a person's integrity,
we may hope or take it for granted that he is
perfectly sincere and honest ; but we cannot
feel more than belief upon trust, till we have
actually seen his integrity tried. We should
not pretend that we liiave faith in our pupils
before we have tried theap ; we may hope from
thfiir habits, from the examples they have seen.,

^71 Practical Education.

and from the advantageous manner in which
truth has always been represented to them,
that they will act honourably ; this hope is na-
tural and just ; but confidence is another feeling
of the mind. The first time we trust a child,
we should not say, *^ I am sure you will not
" deceive me ; I can trust you with any thing
*^ in the world." This is flattery or folly ; it is
paying beforehand ; which is not the way to get
business done ; why cannot we, especially as
we are teaching truth, say the thing that is.
" I hope you will not deceive me. If I find
" that you may be trusted, you know I shall
^* be able to trust you another time : this must
" depend upon you, not entirely upon me."
We must make ourselves certain upon these
occasions how the child conducts himself;
nor is it necessary to use any artifice, or to affect
from false delicacy any security that we do not
feel ; it is better openly to say, " You see I
^^ do you the justice to examine carefully, how
" you have conducted yourself; I wish to be
^^ able to trust you another time."

It may be said, that this method of strict
inquiry reduces a trust to no trust at all, and
that it betrays suspicion. If you examine evi-
dently with a belief that a child has deceived
you, certainly you betray injurious suspicion,
and you educate the child very ill ; but if you

Truth. 2f3

feel and express a strong desire to find that your
pupil has conducted himself honourably; he
will be glad and proud of the strictest scrutiny ;
he will feel that he has earned your future
confidence ; and this confidence, which he
clearly knows how he has obtained, will be
more valuable to him than all the belief upon
trust which you could affect to feel. By
degrees, after your pupil has taught you to
depend upon him, your confidence will prevent
the necessity of any examination into his con-
duct. This is the just and delightful reward of
integrity: children know how to feel and
understand it thoroughly : besides the many
restraints from which out confidence will natu-
rally relieve them, they feel the pride of being
trusted, the honour of having a character for
integrily ; nor can it be too strongly impressed
upon their minds, that this character must be
preserved, as it was obtained, by their own
conduct. If one link in the chain of confidence
be bix)ken, the whole is destroyed. Indeed,
where habits of truth are-, early formed, we may
safely depend upon them : a young person who
has never deceived would see that the first step
in falsehood costs too much to be hazarded.
Let this appear in the form of calculation rather
than of sentiment : to habit, to enthusiasm, we
owe much of all our virtues; to reason more :

VOL. I. T

274 Practical Education.

and the more of them we owe to reason the
better: habit and enthusiasm are subject to
sudden or gradual changes, but reason continues
for ever the same. As the understanding unfolds,
we should fortify all our pupils' good habits
and virtuous enthusiasm by the conviction of
their utility, of their being essential to the hap-
piness of society in general, and conducive
immediately to the happiness of every indivi-
dual : possessed of this conviction, and provided
with substantial arguments in its support, young
people will not be exposed to danger either from
sophistry or ridicule.

Ridicule certainly is not the test of truth ;
but it is a test which truth sometimes finds it
difficult to stand. Vice never " bolts her argu-
" ments " with more success than when she
assumes the air of raillery and the tone of gaiety.
All vivacious young people are fond of wit;
we do not mean children, for they do not under-
stand it : those who have the best capacities,
and the strictest habits of veracity, often appear,
to common observers, absolutely stupid, from
their aversion to any play upon words, and from
the literal simplicity with which they believe
every thing that is asserted. A remarkably
intelligent little girl of four years, but who
had never in her own family been used to the
common phrases which sometimes pass for

Truth, 275

humour, happened to hear a gentleman say, as he
looked out of the window one rainy morning, " It
^^ rains cats and dogs to day : " the child, with a
surprised but believing countenance, imme-
diately went to look out at the window to see
the phaenomenon.* This extreme simplicity in
childhood is sometimes succeeded in youth by
a strong taste for wit and humour : young people
are, in the first place, proud to show that they
understand them, and they are gratified by the
perception of a new intellectual pleasure. At
this period of their education great attention
must be paid to them, lest their admiration for
wit and frolic should diminish their reverence
and their love for sober truth. In many engaging
characters in society, and in many entertaining
books, deceit and dishonesty are associated with
superior abilities, with ease and gaiety of
manners, and with a certain air of frank care-
lessness which can scarcely fail to please. Gil
Blas,'^' Tom Jones, Lovelace, Count Fathom,
are all of this class of characters : they should

* A lady of good sense, who read this story in the first
edition, expressed some doubt as to the possibility of such
simplicity : another lady, who was present, called out suddenly,
that it rained cats and dogs, and the child of the former lady
instantly ran to the window to see the pha^nomenon.

•j- See Mrs. Macauley's Letters on Education.
T 2

176 Practical Education.

not b6 introduced to our pupils till their habits
of integrity are thoroughly formed, and till they
are sufficiently skilful in analysing their own
feelings, to distinguish whence their appro-
bation and pleasure in reading of these characters
arise. In books, we do not actually suffer by
the tricks of rogues, nor by the lies they tell ;
hence their truth is to us a quality of no value ;
biit their wit, humour, and the ingenuity of
their contrivances, are of great value to us, be-
cause they afford us entertainment : the most
honest man in the universe may not have had
half so many adventures as the greatest rogue ;
in a romance, the history upon oath of all the
honest man's bargains and sales, law-suits and
losses, nay, even a con)plete view of his ledger
£ind day-book, together with the regular balanc-
ings of his accounts, would probably not afford
quite so much entertainment, even to a reader
of the most unblemished integrity and phleg-
matic temper, as the adventures of Gil Bias
and Jonathan Wild, adorned with all the wit of
Le Sage and humour of Fielding. When Gil
Bias lays open his whole heart to us, and tells
us all his sins, unwhipt of justice, we give him
xiredit for making us his confidant, and we forget
that this sincerity, and these liberal confessions
are not characteristic of the hero's disposition,
but essential only to the novel. The novel

Truth. 277

writer could not tell us all he had to say without
this dying confession, and inconsistent open-
nessj from his accomplished villain ; the reader
is ready enough to forgive, having never been
duped. When young people can make all these
reflections for themselves, they may read Gil
Bias with as much safety as the life of Franklin,
or any other the most moral performance. " Tout
" est sain aux sains,"* as Madame de Sevigne
very judiciously observes in one of her letters
upon the choice of books for her grand-daughter.
We refer for more detailed observations upon
this subject to the chapter upon Books. But
we cannot help here reiterating our advice to
preceptors, not to force the detestable characters
which are sometimes held up to admiration in
ancient and modern history, upon the common
sense, or, if they please, the moral feelings of
their pupils. The bad actions of ^rea^ characters
should not be palliated by eloquence, and fraud
and villainy should never be explained away
by the hero's or warrior's code ; a code which
confounds all just ideas of right and wrong. Boys,
in reading the classics, must read of a variety of
crimes ; but that is no reason why they should
approve of them, nor why their tutors should
undertake to vindicate the cause of falsehood

* Every thing is healthful to the healthy.

278 Practical Education.

and treachery. A gentleman, who has taught
his sons Latin, has uniformly pursued the prac-
tice of abandoning to the just and prompt
indignation of his young pupils all the ancient
heroes who are deficient in moral honesty : his
sons, in reading Cornelius Nepos, absolutely
could not comprehend that the treachery of
Themistocles or of Alcibiades could be applauded
by a wise and polished nation. Xenophon has
jnade an eloquent attempt to explain the nature
of military good faith ; Cambyses tells his son,
that, in taking advantage of an enemy, a man
must be " crafty, deceitful, a dissembler, a thief,
*' and a robber." ^^ Oh Jupiter!" exclaims
the young Cyrus, ^^ what a man, my father, you
** say I must be ! " And he very sensibly asks
his father, why, if it be necessary in some cases
to ensnare and deceive men, he had not in his
childhood been taught by his preceptors the
art of doing harm to his fellow-creatures, as well
as of doing them good. " And why," says
Cyrus, " have I always been punished whenever
*^ I have been discovered in practising deceit ? "
The answers of Cambyses are by no means
satisfactory upon this subject: nor do we think
that the conversation between the pld general
and Mr. Williiams* could have made the matter

♦ See Mr. Williams's Lectures on Education, where Xeno-
phon is quoted, p. 16, &c. vol. ii. — also p. 31.
4

Truth. 27Q

perfectly intelligible to the young gentleman,
whose scrupulous integrity made him object to
the military profession.

It is certain that many persons, of strict ho-
nour and honesty in some points, on others are
utterly inconsistent in their principles : thus it is
said, that private integrity and public corruption
frequently meet in the same character ; thus some
gentlemen are jockies, and they have a conveni-
ent lattitude of conscience as jockies, whilst they
would not for the universe cheat a man of a gui-
nea in any way but in the sale of a horse : others
in gambhng, others in love, others in war, think
all stratagems fair. We endeavour to think that
these are all honourable men ; but we hope
that we are not obliged to lay down tules for the
formation of such moral prodigies in a system of
practical education.

We are aware that with children,* who are
educated at public schools, truth and integrity
cannot be taught precisely in the same manner
as in private families ; because ushers and school-
masters cannot pay the same hourly attention to
each of their pupils, nor have they the com-
mand of the necessary circumstances. There
are, however, some advantages attending the
early commerce which numbers of children at

* Vide Williams,

280 Practical Education,

public seminaries have with each other ; they
find that no society can subsist without truth ;
they feel the utility of this virtue ; and, how-
ever they niay deal with their masters, they
learn to speak truth towards each other. This
partial species of honesty, or rather of honour,
is not the very best of its kind, but it may easily
be improved into a more rational principle of ac-
tion. It is illiberal to assert, that any virtue is
to be taught only by one process of education ;
many different methods of education may pro-
duce the same effects. Men of integrity and ho-
nour have been formed both by private and pub-
lic education ; neither should be exclusively
supported by those who really wish well to the
improvement of mankind. All the errors of
each system should be impartially pointed out,
and such remedies as may most easily be adopted
with any hope of success should be proposed.
We think, that if parents paid sufficient atten-
tion to the habits of their children, from the age
of three to seven years old, they would be pro-
perly prepared for public education ; they
would not then bring with them to public schools
all that they have learned of vice and falsehood
in the company of servants.* We have pur-
posely repeated all this in hopes of impressing it

' * V. Servants and " Public and Private Education.'*

Truth. 281

strongly. May we suggest to the masters of
these important seminaries, that Greek and La-
tin, and all the eloquence of classical literature,
are matters but of secondary consequence com-
pared with those habits of truth, which are es-
sential to the character and happiness of their
pupils ? By rewarding the moral virtues more
highly than the mere display of talents, a gene-
rous emulation to excel in these virtues may
with certainty be excited.

Many preceptors and parents will readily
agree, that Bacon, in his " general distribution
" of human knowledge," was perfectly right not
to omit that branch of philosophy, which his
lordship terms " the doctrine of rising in the
" world'' To this art integrity at length be-
comes necessary ; for talents, whether for busi-
ness or for oratory, are now become so cheap,
that they cannot alone ensure pre-eminence to
their possessors. The public opinion, which in
England bestows celebrity, and necessarily leads
to honour, is intimately connected with the pub-
lie confidence. Public confidence is not the
same thing as popularity ; the one may be won,
the other must be earned. There is amongst all
parties at present an unsatisfied demand for ho-
nest men. Those who speculate in this line for
their children will do wisely to keep this fact in

282 Practical Education.

their remembrance during their whole educa-
tion.

We have delayed, from a full consciousness of
the difficulty of the undertaking, to speak of the
method of curing either the habits or the pro-
pensity to falsehood. Physicians, for mental as
well as bodily diseases, can give long histories of
maladies ; but are surprisingly concise when
they come to treat of the method of cure.
With patients of different ages and different
temperaments, to speak with due medical so-
lemnity, we should advise different remedies.
With young children we should be most anxious
to break the habits ; with children at a more ad-
vanced period of their education, we should be
most careful to rectify the principles. Children,
before they reason, act merely from habit, and
without having acquired command over them-
selves, they have no power to break their own
habits ; but when young people begin to reflect
and deliberate, their principles are of much more
importance than their habits, because their prin-
ciples, in fact, in many cases govern their fu-
ture habits ; it is in consequence of their deli-
berations and reflections that they act, and be-
fore we can change their way of acting, we must
change their way of thinking.

To break habits of falsehood in young children

Truth. 283

let us begin by removing the temptation, what-
ever it may be. For instance, if the child has
the habit of denying things which he has seen,
heard, and done, we must not, upon any ac-
count, ever question him about any of these parti-
culars, but we should forbear to give him any
pleasure which he might hope to obtain by our
faith in his assertions. Without entering into
any explanations, we should absolutely * disre-
gard what he says, and with looks of cool con-
tempt turn away without listening to his falsi-
ties. A total change of occupations, new ob-
jects, especially such as excite and employ the
senses, will be found highly advantageous. Sud-
den pleasure, from strong expressions of affec-
tion, or eloquent praise, whenever the child
speaks truth, will operate powerfully in break-
ing his habits of equivocation. We do not ad-
vise parents to try sudden pain with children at
this early age, neither do we advise bodily cor-
rection, or lasting penitences, meant to excite
shame, because these depress and enfeeble the
mind ; and a propensity to falsehood ultimately
arises from weakness and timidity. Strengthen
the body and mind by all means ; try to give the
pupils command over themselves upon occasions
where they have no opportunities of deceiving :

* Rousseau and Williams.

'4^4 Practical Education.

the same command of mind and courage, pro-
ceeding from the consciousness of strength and
fortitude, may, when once acquired, be exerted
in any manner we direct. A boy who tells a
falsehood to avoid some trifling pain, or to pro-
cure some trifling gratification, would perhaps
dare to speak the truth, if he were certain that
he could bear the pain, or do without the gra-
tification. Without talking to him about truth
or falsehood, we should begin by exercising him
in the art of bearing and forbearing. The slightest
trials are best for beginners, such as their forti-
tude can bear ; for success is necessary to increase
their courage.

Madam de Genlis, in her Adele and Theodore,
gives Theodore, when he is about seven years
old, a box of sugar-plums to ia^e care of, to
teach him to command his passions. Theodore
produces the untouched ti*easure to his mother,
from time to time, with great self-complacency.
We think this a good practical lesson. Some
years ago the experiment was tried, with com-
plete success, upon a little boy between ^ve and
six years old. This boy kept raisins and al-
monds in a little box in his pocket, day after
day, without ever thinking of touching them.
His only diflliculty was to remember, at the ap-
pointed time, at the week's end, to produce
them ; the raisins were regularly counted from
1 '

Truth. 285

time to time, and vvhere, when found to be right
sometimes givei) co the child, but not always.
When for several weeks the boy had faithfully
executed his trust, the time was extended for
which he was to keep the raisins, and ev^ry
body in the family expressed that they were now
certain, before they counted the raisins, that they
should find the number exact. This confidence
which was not pretended confidence, pleased the
child, but the rest he considered as a matter of
course. We think such little . trials as these
might be made with children of fi\e or six years
o|d, to give them early habits of exactness. The
boy we have just mentioned has grown up with
a more unblemished reputation for truth than
any child with whom we were ever acquainted.
This is the same boy who broke the looking-
glass, (page 252.)

When a patient far advanced in his childhood
is yet to be cured of a propensity to deceive, the
business becomes formidable. It is dangerous
to sit our vigilance in direct opposition to his
cunning, and it is yet more dangerous to trust,
and give him opportunities of fresh deceit. If
the pupil's temper is timid, fear has probably
been his chief inducement to dissimulation. If
his temper is sanguine, hope and success, and
perhaps the pleasure of inventing schemes, or
of outwitting his superiors, have been his mo-

286 Practical Education.

tives. In one case we should prove to the pa-
tient that he has nothing to fear from speaking
the truth to us ; in the other case we should
demonstrate to him, that he has nothing to hope
from telling us falsehoods. Those who arc
pleased with the ingenuity of cunning, should
have opportunities of showing their ingenuity in
honourable employments, and the highest praise
should be given to their successful abiHties
whenever they are thus exerted. They will
compare their feelings when they are the ob-
jects of esteem and of contempt, and they will
be led permanently to pursue what most tends
to their happiness. We should never deprive
them of the hope of establishing a character for
integrity ; on the contrary, we should explain
distinctly to them, that this is absolutely in their
own power. Examples from real life will strike
the mind of a young person just entering into
the world, much more than any fictitious cha-
racters, or moral stories ; and strong indignation,
expressed incidentally, will have more effect
than any lectures prepared for the purpose. We
do not mean, that any artifice should be used to
make our lessons impressive ; but there is no
artifice in seizing opportunities, which must
occur in real life, to exemplify the advantages
of a good character. The opinions which young
people hear expressed of actions in which they

Truth. 287

have no share, and of characters with whom they
are not connected, make a great impression upon
them. The horror which is shown to falsehood,
the shame which overwhelms the culprit, they
have then leisure to contemplate ; they see the
effects of the storm at a distance ; they dread to
be exposed to its violence, and they will prepare
for their own security. When any such strong
impression has been made upon the mind, we
should seize that moment to connect new prin-
ciples with new habits of action : we should try
the pupil in some situation in which he has
never been tried before, and where he constantly
may feel hope of obtaining reputation, if he de-
serves it, by integrity. All reproaches upon his
former conduct should now be forborne, and he
should be allowed to feel, in full security, the
pleasures and the honours of his new character.

288 Practical Education,

CHAPTER IX.

::>'r

O71 Rewards and Punishments.

X O avoid, in education, all unnecessary seve-
rity, and all dangerous indulgence, we must
form just ideas of the nature and ijse of rewards
and pttnishments. het us begin with consider-
ing the nature of punisliment, since it is best to
get the most disagreeable part of our business
dojae the first. J*>^A o

Several benevolent and enlightened authors*
have endeavoured to explain the use of penal
laws, and to correct the ideas which formerly
prevailed concerning public justice. Punishment
is no longer considered, except by the ignorant
and sanguinary, as vengeance from the injured,
or expiation from the guilty. We now distinct-
ly understand, that the greatest possible happi-
ness of the whole society must be the ultimate
object of all just legislation ; that the partial evil

* Beccaria, Voltaire, Blackstone, &c.

Rewards and Punishments. 289

of punishment is consequently to be tolerated
by the wise and humane legislator, only so far
as it is proved to be necessary for the general
good. When a crime has been committed, it
cannot be undone by all the art, pr all the power
of man ; by vengeance the most sanguinary, or
remorse the most painful. The past is irrevo-
cable ; all that remains is to provide for the fu-
ture. It would be absurd, after an offence has
already been committed, to increase the sum of
misery in the world by inflicting pain upon the
offender, unless that pain were afterwards to be
productive of happiness to society, either by pre-
venting the criminal from repeating his offence,
or by deterring others from similar enormities.
With this double view, of restraining indivi-
duals by the recollection of past sufferings from
future crimes, and of teaching others by public
examples to expect, and to fear, certain evils as
the necessary consequences of certain actions
hurtful to society, all wise laws are framed, and
all just punishments are inflicted. It is only by
the conviction that certain punishments are es-
sential to the general security and happiness,
that a person of humanity can, or ought, to for-
tify his mind against the natural feelings of com-
passion. These feelings are the most painful
and the most difficult to resist, when, as it
sometimes unavoidably happens, public justice

1' •••^ ' f

290 Practical Education,

requires the total sacrifice of the happiness, li-
berty, or perhaps the life, of a fellow-creature,
whose ignorance precluded him from virtue, and
whose neglected or depraved education prepared
him, by inevitable degrees, for vice and all its
miseries. How exquisitely painful must be the
feelings of a humane judge in pronouncing sen-
tence upon such a devoted being ! But the law
permits of no refined metaphysical disquisitions :
it would be vain to plead the necessitarian's doc-
trine of an unavoidable connexion between the
past and the future in all human actions ; the
same necessity compels the punishment that
compelled the crime ; nor could, nor ought,
the most eloquent advocate in a court of jus-
tice to obtain a criminaPs acquittal by entering
into a minute history of the errors of his edu-
cation.

It is the business of education to prevent
crimes, and to prevent all those habitual propen-
sities which necessarily lead to their commis-
sion. The legislator can consider only the large
interests of -society ; the preceptor's view is fixed
upon the individual interests of his pupil. For-
tunately both must ultimately agree. To secure
for his pupil the greatest possible quantity of
happiness, taking in the whole of life, must be *
the wish of the preceptor : this includes every
thing. We immediately perceive the connexion

Rewards and Punishments. '291

between that happiness and obedience to all the
laws on which the prosperity of society depends.
We yet farther perceive, that the probability of
our pupil's yielding not only an implicit, but an
habitual, rational, voluntary, happy obedience,
to such laws, must arise from the connexion
which he believes, and feels that there exists,
between his social duties and his social happi-
ness. How to induce this important belief is
the question.

It is obvious, that we cannot explain to the
comprehension of a child of three or four years
old all the truths of morality; nor can we de-
monstrate to him the justice of punishments, by
showing him that we give present pain to ensure
future advantage. But though we cannot de-
monstrate to the child that we are just^ we may
satisfy ourselves upon this subject, and we may
conduct ourselves during his non-age of under-
standing with the scrupulous integrity of a guar-
dian. Before we can govern by reason, we can,
by associating pain or pleasure with certain ac-
tions, give habits, and these habits will be either
beneficial or hurtful to the pupil : we must, if
they be Imrtful habits, conquer them by fresh
punishments, and thus we make the helpless
child suffer for our negligence and mistakes.
Formerly in Scotland there existed a law, which
obliged every farrier, who through ignorance or
drunkenness pricked a horse's foot in shoeing

u 2

i2®B Practical Education,

him, to deposit the price of the horse till he was
sound, to furnish the owner with another, and m
case the horse could not be cured, the farrieT
was doomed to indemnify the injured owner.
At the same rate of punishment, what indemni-
dB:cation should be demanded from a careless or
ignorant pteceptdr ?

When a young child puts his finger too near
the fire, he bums himself; the pain immediately
follows the action, and they become associated
together in the<>hi]d's raremory ; if he repeat the
experimeiit often, and constantly with the same
result, the association will be so strongly formefd,
that the child will ever afterwards expect these
two things to happen together ; whenever he
^uts his finger into fire, he will expect to feel
pain ; he will yet farther, as these things regu-
larly follow one another, learn to think orfe the
cause, and the oth^r the effect. He may not
have words to express these ideas ; nor can we
explain how the belief, that events which have
happened together will again happen /together,
is by experience induced in the mind. This is
a fact which no metaphysicians pretend to dis-
pute, but it has not yet, that we know of, been
accounted for by any. It would be rash to as-
sert, that it will not in future be explained ; but
at present we are totally in the dark upon the
subject. It is sufficient for our purpose to ob-
serve, that this association of fects, or of ideas.

Rewards and Punishments. 2g3^

affects the actions of all rational beings, and of
many animals who are called irrational. Would
you teach a dog or a horse to obey you ? Do
you not associate pleasure or pain with tho
things you wish that they should practise o»
avoid ? The impatient and ignorant give infi-
nitely more pain than is necessary to the ani*
mals they educate. If the pain, which we would
^s^ociat^ with siny action, do not immediat€ly
follow it, the child does not understand us ; if
several events happen nearly at the same time,
it is impossible that a child can at first distin*
guish which are causes and which are effects.
Suppose that a mother would teach her little
son, that be must not put his dirty shoes upon
beR clean sofa: if she frowns upon him, or
speaks to him in an angry tone, at the instant
that he sets his foot and shoe upon the sofa, he
desists, without knowing that the dirt of big
shoes was the motive of his mothar's prohibit ,
tion.; but be has only learned, that putting a
foot upon the sofa, and his mother's frown, fol-
low each other ; bis mother's frown, from former
associations, gives him perhaps some pain, or
the expectation of some pain, and consequently
be avoids repeating the action which immediate-
ly preceded the frown. If, a short iimo after-
wards, the little boy, forgetting the frown, s^cci-
de^tally g^s upon the soh zvit/wut his shoes, no

'294 P^-actical Education.

evil follows ; but it is not probable that he can,
by this single experiment, discover that his shoes
have made all the difference in the two cases.
Children are frequently so much puzzled by
their confused experience of impunity and pu-
nishment, that they are quite at a loss how to
conduct themselves. Whenever our punish-
ments are not made intelligible, they are cruel ;
they give pain, without producing any future
advantage. To make punishment intelligible to
children, it must be not only immediately, but
repeatedly and uniformly, associated with the
actions which we wish them to avoid.
I When children begin to reason, punishment
affects them in a different manner from what it
did whilst they were governed, like irrational
animals, merely by the direct associations of
pleasure and pain. They distinguish in many
instances, between coincidence and causation ;
they discover that the will of others is frequently
the immediate cause of the pain they suffer :
they learn by experience, that the will is not
an unchangeable cause, that it is influenced by
circumstances, by passions, by persuasion, by
caprice. It must be, however, by slow degrees,
that they acquire any ideas of justice. They
cannot know our views relative to their future
happiness : their first ideas of the justice of the
punishments we inflict cannot therefore be accu-i-

Rewards and Pmiishments. 295

Fate. They regulate these first judgments by the
simple idea, that our punishments ought to be
exactly the same always in the same circumstan-
ces : when they understand words, they learn
to expect that our words and actions should
precisely agree, that we should keep our pro-
mises, and fulfil our threats. They next learn,
that as they are punished for voluntary faults, they
cannot justly be punished till it has been dis-
tinctly explained to them what is wrong or for-
bidden^ and what is right or permitted. The
words right or wrong, diXidi permitted or forbidden,
are synonymous at first in the apprehensions of
children ; and obedience and disobedience are
their only ideas of virtue and vice. Whatever
we command to be done, or rather whatever we
associate with pleasure, they imagine to be right;
whatever we prohibit, provided we have uniform-
ly associated it with pain, they believe to be
wrong. This implicit submission to our autho-
rity, and these confined ideas of right and wrong,
are convenient, or apparently convenient, to in-
dolent or tyrannical governors ; and they some-
times endeavour to prolong the reign of ignorance,
with the hope of establishing in the mind an
opinion of their own infallibility. But this is
a dangerous as well as an unjust system. By
comparison with the conduct and opinions of
others, children learn to judge 6f their parents and

296 Practical Education.

preceptors ; by reading and by conversation they
acquire more enlarged notions of right and
wrong ; and their obedience, unless it then arise
from the conviction of their understandings,
depends but on a very precarious foundation.
The mere association of pleasure and pain, in
the form of reward and punishment, with any
given action will not govern them ; they will
now examine whether there is any moral or
physical necessary connexion between the action
and punishment; nor will they believe the pu-
nishment they suffer to be the consequence
of the action they have committed, but rather
a consequence of their being obliged to submit
to the will of those who are stronger or more
powerful than they are themselves. Unjust
punishments do dot eifect their intended purpose,
because the pain is not associated with the action
which we would prohibit ; but, on the contrary,
it is associated with the idea of our tyranny ; it
consequently excites the sentiment of hatred
towards us, instead of aversion to the forbidden
action. When once, by reasoning, children ac-
quire €ven a vague idea that those who educate
them are unjust, it is vain either to punish or
reward them : if they submit, or if they rebel,
their education is equally spoiled ; in the one
case they become cowardly, in the other head-
strong. To avoid these evils there is but one

Rewards and Punishments. 297

method ; we must early secure reason for our
friend, else she will become our unconquerable
enemy. As soon as children are able, in any
instance, to understand the meaning and nature
of punishment, it should in that instance be
explained to them. Just punishment is pain
inflicted with the reasonable hope of preventing
greater pain in fuiure. In a family, where there
are several children educated together, or in
public schools, punishments may be inflicted
with justice for the sake of example, but still
the reformation and future good of the suflerer
is always a principal object; and of this he
should be made sensible. If our practice upon
all occasions correspond with our theory, and if
children really perceive, that we do not punish
them to gratify our own spleen or passion, we
shall not become, even when we give them pain,
objects of their hatred. The pain will not be
associated with us, but, as it ought to be, with
the fault which was the real cause of it. As
much as possible we should let children feel the
natural consequences of their own conduct.
The natural consequence of speaking the truth
is the being believed ; the natural consequence
of falsehood is the loss of truth and confidence ;
the natural consequence of all the useful virtues
is esteem, of all the amiable virtues love, of
each of the prudential virtues some peculiar ad-

208 Practical Educatioji,

vantage to their possessor. But plum-pudding
is iiot the appropriate reward of truth, nor is the
loss of it the natural or necessary consequence
of falsehood. Prudence is not to be rewarded
with the affection due to humanity; nor is hu-
manity to be recompensed with the esteem
claimed by prudence. Let each good and bad
quality have its proper share of praise and blame,
and let the consequences of each follow as con-
stantly as possible. That young people may
form a steady judgment of the danger of any
vice, they must uniformly perceive, that certain
painful consequences result from its practice.
It is in vain that we inflict punishments, unless
all the precepts and all the examples which they
see confirm them in the same belief.

In the unfortunate son of Peter the Great we
have a striking instance of the effects of a disa-
greement between precept and example,''*' which
in a less elevated situation might have escaped our
notice. It seems as if the different parts and
stages of his education had been purposely con-
trived to counteract each other. Till he was
eleven years old, he was committed to the care of
women, and of ignorant bigotted priests, who
were continually inveighing against his father
for the abolition of certain barbarous customs,

♦ See Cox's Travels, vol.. ii. 189.

Rewards and Punishments, 299

Then came baron Huysen for his governor, a
sensible man, who had just begun to make some-
thing of his pupil, when Prince Menzikof in-
sisted upon having the sole management of the
unfortunate Alexey. Prince Menzikof aban-
doned him to the company of the lowest
wretches, who encouraged him in continual
ebriety, and in a taste for every thing mean and
profligate. At length came Euphrosyne, his
Finlandish mistress, who upon his trial for rebels
lion deposed to every angry expression which, in
his most unguarded moments, the wretched
son had uttered against the tyrannical father.
Amidst such scenes of contradictory experience,
can we be surprised that Alexey Petrovitch be-
came feeble, ignorant, and profligate ; that he re-
belled against the father whom he had early been
taught to fear , and hate ; that he listened to the
pernicious counsels of the companions who had,
by pretended sympathy and flattery, obtained
that place in his confidence which no parental
kindness had ever secured ? Those historians
who are zealous for the glory of Peter the Great
have eagerly refuted, as a most atrocious calum-
ny, the report of his having had any part in the
mysterious death of his son. But how will they
apologize for the Czar's neglect of that son's edu-
cation, from which all the misfortunes of his
life arose ?

300 Practical Education.

But all tWs is past for ever ; the only ad van-
tage we ean gain from recalling these circum*
stances is a confirmation of this important prin-
ciple in education ; that when precept and ex-
ample counteract one another, there is no hope
of success. Nor can the utmost severity effect
any useful purpose, whilst the daily experience
of the pupil contradicts his preceptor's lessons.
In fact, severity i& seldom necessary in a well-
conducted education. The smallest possible
degree of pain, which can in any case produce
the required effect, is indisputably the just mea-
sure of the punishment which ought to be in-
flicted in any given case. This simple axiom
will lead us to a number of truths which imme-
diately depend upon or result from it. We must
attend to every circumstance which can diminish
the quantity of pain, without lessening the effi-
cacy of punishment. Now it has been found
from experience, that there are several circum-
stances which operate uniformly to this purpose.
We formerly observed, that the effect of punish-
ment upon the minds of children, before they
reason, depends much upon its immediately suc-
ceeding the fault, and also upon its being cer-
tainly repeated whenever the same fault is com-
mitted. After children acquire the power of
reasoning, from a variety of new motives, these
laws with respect to punishment derive addi-

Rewards and Punishments. 801

lional force. A trifling degree of pain will an-
swer the purpose, if it be made inevitable;
whilst the fear of an enormous proportion of un-
certain punishment will not be found sufficient
to govern the mind. The contemplation of a
distant punishment^ however severe, does not af-
fect the imagination with much terror, because
there is still a secret hope of escape. Hence it
is found from experience, that the most sangui-
nary penal laws have always been ineifectual to
restrain from crimes.* Even if detection be
inevitable, and consequent punishment equally
inevitable, if punishment be not inflicted as soon
as the criminal is convicted, it has been found
that it has not, either as a preventive, or a public
example, Its proper power upon the human mind.
Not only should the punishment be immediate
after conviction, but detection should follow the
offence as speedily as possible. Without en-
tering at large into the intricate argument con-
cerning identity and consciousness, we may ob-
serve, that the consciousness of having committed
the oflence for which he suffers ought at the time
of suffering to be strong in the offender's mind.
Though proofs of his identity may have been le-
gally established in a court of justice, and though
as far as it relates to public justice, it matters not

* See Beccariai Blackstone, Colquhoun.

302 Practical Education,

whether the offence for which he is punished
has been committed yesterday or a year ago ;
yet, as to tlie effect which the punishment pro-
duces on the culprit's own mind, there must be
a material difference.

"I desire you to judge of me, not by what I
" was, but by what I am," said a philosopher
when he was reproached for some of his past trans-
gressions. If the interval between an offence and
its punishment be long, it is possible that du-
ring this interval a complete change may be
made in the views and habits of the offender;
such a change as shall absolutely preclude all
probability of his repeating the offence. His
punishment must then be purely for the sake of
example to others. He suffers pain at the time,
perhaps, when he is in the best social disposi-
tions possible ; and thus we punish the present
good man for the faults of the former offender.
We readily excuse the violence which a man in
a passion may have committed, when upon his
return to his sober senses he expresses contri-
tion and surprise at his own excesses ; he assures
us, and we believe him, that he is now a per-
fectly different person. If we do not feel any
material ill consequences from his late anger, we
are willing, and even desirous, that the passion-
ate man should not in his sober state be pu-
nished for his madness ; all that we can desire is,

2

Rewards and Punishments, 303

to have some security against his falling into any
fresh fit of anger : could his habits of temper be
instantly changed, and could we have a moral
certainty that his frenzy would never more do
us any injury, would it not be malevolent and
unjust to punish him for his old insanity ? If
we think arid act upon these principles with re-
spect to men, how much more indulgent should
we be to children ? Indulgence is perhaps an
improper word : but in other words, how care-
ful should we be never to chain children to their
dead faults ! * Children during their education
must be in a continual state of progression ;
they are not the same to-day that they were yes-
terday ; they have little reflection, their con-
sciousness of the present occupies them, and it
would be extremely difficult from day to day, or
from hour to hour, to identify their minds. Far
from wishing that they should distinctly remem-
ber all their past thoughts, and that they should
value themselves upon their continuing the
same, we must frequently desire that they
should forget their former errors, and absolutely
change their manner of thinking. They should
feel no interest in adhering to former bad habits
or false opinions ; therefore their pride should
not be roused to defend these by our making

* Mezentius. Virgil.

304 Practical Education.

them a part of their standing character. The
character of children is to be formed ; we should
never speak of it as positively fixed. Man has
been defined to be a bundle of habits ; till the
bundle is made up we may continually increase
or diminish it. Children who are zealous in de-
fence of their oWn perfections, are of all others
most likely to become stationary in their intel-
lectual progress, and disingenuous in their tem-
per. It would be in vain to repeat to them this
sensible and elegant observation, " To confess
" that you have been in the wrong, is only say-
" ing in other words that you are wiser to-day
" than you were yesterday." This remark will
rather pique than comfort the pride of those,
who are anxious to prove that they have been
equally wise and immaculate in every day of
their existence.

It may be said, that children cannot too early
be made sensible of the value of reputation, and
that they must be taught to connect the ideas
of their past and present selves^ otherwise they
cannot perceive, for instance, why confidence
should be placed in them in proportion to their
past integrity, or why falsehood should lead to
distrust. The force of this argument must be
admitted ; yet still we must consider the age
and strength of mind in children, when we apply
it to practice. Truth is not instinctive in the

'4

Reivards and Funishments, 305

mind, and the ideas of integrity, and of the ad-
vantages of reputation, must be very cautiously
introduced, lest, by giving children too perfect
a theory of morality before they have sufficient
strength of mind to adhere to it in practice, wc
make them hypocrites, or else give them a fatal
distrust of themselves, founded upon too early
an experience of their own weakness, and too
great sensibihty to sham§.

Shame, when once it becomes familiar to the
mind, loses its effect ; it should not therefore be
used as a common punishment for slight fiiults.
Nor should we trust very early in education to
the delicate, secret " influence of conscience ; but
we should take every precaution to prevent the
necessity of having recourse to the punishment
of disgrace ; and we must, if we mean to pre-
serve the power of conscience, take care that it
be never disregarded with impunity ; and we
repeat that we should never expose the integrity
of children to strong temptation, except in situa-
tions where we can be perfectly certain of the
result of the experiment. We must neither run
the risk of injuring them by unjust suspicions,
nor by unmerited confidence. By prudent ar-
rangements,. and by unremitted daily attention,
we should absolutely prevent the possibility of,
deceit. By giving few commands or prohibi-
tions, we may avoid the danger of either secret

VOL, I. X

S06 Practical Education,

or open disobedience. By diminishing tempta-
tions to do wrong, we act more humanely than
by multiplying restraints and punishments.

It has been found, that no restraints or punish-
ments have proved adequate to ensure obedience
to laws, whenever strong temptations, and many
prol^bilities of evasion, combine in opposi-
tion to conscience or fear. The terrors of the
law have been for years ineffectually directed
against a race of beings called smugglers ; yet
smuggling is still an extensive, lucrative, and
not universally discreditable, profession. Let
any person look into the history of the excise
laws,* and he will be astonished at the accumu-
lation of penal statutes, which the active, but
vain ingenuity of prohibitory legislators has de-
vised in the course of about thirty years. Open
war was declared against all illegal distillers, yet
the temptation to illegal distilling continually
increased, in proportion to the heavy duties laid
upon the fair trader. It came at length to a trial
of skill between revenue officers and distillers,
which could cheat, or which could detect the
fastest. The distiller had the strongest interest
in the business, and he usually came off victo-
rious. Coursing officers, dindi watching officers

* V. An Inquiry into the Principles of Taxation, p. 37,
publisjhed in 1790.

Rewards and Punishments. 307

(once ten watching officers were set upon one
distiller) and sui^veyors, and supermsors, multi-
plied without end : the land, in their fiscal
maps, was portioned out into dhisions and dis-
tricts, and each ganger had the charge of all the.
distillers in his division; the watching officer
went first, and the coursing officer went after
him, and after him the supervisor; and they
had table-books, and gauging-rods, and dockets,
and permits ; permits for sellers, and permits for
buyers, and permits for foreign spirits printed
in red ink, and permits for British spirits in black
ink ; and they went about night and day with
their hydrometers to ascertain the strength of
spirits, and with their gauging-rods to measure
wash. But the pertinacious distiller wds still
flourishing ; permits were forged, concealed pipes
were fabricated, and the proportion between the
wash and spirits was seldom legal. The com-
missioners complained, and the legislators went
to work again. Under a penalty of ]00l. distil-
lers were ordered to paint the words distiller^
dealer in spirits, over their doors ; and it was
further enacted, that all the distillers should fur-
nish, at their own expense, any kind of locks,
and fastenings, which the revenue officers should
require for locking up the doors of their own
furnaces, the heads of their own stills, pumps,
pipes, &c. First, suspicions fell upon the pub-

X2

308 Practical Education.

lie distiller for exportation ; then his utensils
were locked up ; afterwards the private distiller
was suspected, and he was locked up : then they
set him and his furnaces at liberty, and went
back in a passion to the public distiller. The
legislature condescended to interfere, and with
a new lock and key, precisely described in an
act of parliament, it was hoped all would be
made secure. But any common blacksmith,
with a picklock in his possession, laughed at the
combined skill of the two houses of parliament :
they had not fixed the padlock upon the mind.

This digression from the rewards and punish-
ments of children to the distillery laws, may, it
is hoped, be pardoned, if the useful moral can be
drawn from it, that where there are great temp-
tations to fraud, and continual opportunities of
evasion, no laws, however ingenious, no punish-
ments, however exorbitant, can avail. The his-
tory of coiners, venders, and utterers, of his Ma-
jesty's coin, as lately detailed to us by respectable
authority,* may afford further illustration of this
principle.

The fewer the laws we make for children, the
better. Whatever they may be, they should be
distinctly expressed ; the letter and spirit should
both agree, and the words should bear but one

* Calquhoun, on the Police of the Metropolis.

Rewar^ds and Punishments. 309

signification, clear to all the parties concerned.
They should never be subject to the e.v post facto
interpretation of an angry preceptor, or a cun-
ning pupil ; no loose, general terms should per-
mit tyranny, or encourage quibbling. There is
said * to be a Chinese law, which decrees, that
whoever does not show proper respect to the so-
vereign is to be punished with death. What is
meant by the words proper respect is not defined.
Two persons made a mistake in some account
of an insignificant aftair in one of their court ga-
zettes. It was declared that to lie in a court
gazette is to be wanting in proper respect to the
court. Both the careless scribes were put to
death. One of the princes of the blood inadver-
tently put some mark upon a memorial, which
had been signed by the emperor Bogdo Chan.
This was construed to be a want of proper respect
to Bogdo Chan the emperor, and a horrible per-
secution hence arose against the scrawling prince
and his whole family. May no school-masters,
ushers, or others, ever (even as far as they are
able) imitate Bogdo Chan, and may they always
define to their subjects what they mean by pro-
per respect I

* V. The Grand Instructions to the commissioners appointed
to frame a new code of la\vs for the Russian empire, p. 183,
said to be drawn up by the late Lord Mansfield.

310 Practical Education.

There is a sort of mistaken mercy sometimes
shown to children, which is, in reaUty, the
greatest cruelty. People who are too angry to
refrain from threats, are often too indolent, or
too compassionate, to put their threats in exe-
cution. Between their words and actions there.
is hence a manifest contradiction ; their pupils
learn from experience, either totally to disregard
these threats, or else to calculate, from the vari-
ous degrees of anger which appear in the threat-
ener's countenance, what real probability there
is of his being as good or as bad as his word.
Far from perceiving that punishment, in this
ca^e, is pain given with the ixesonable hope of
malting him xviser or happier, the pupil is con-
vinced that his master punishes him only to gra-
tify the passion of anger, to which he is unfor-
tunately subject, Even supposing that masters
are exact in fulfilling their threats, and that they
are not passionate ; if they speak with violence,
they do so with a view to excite the fears of
their pupils as the means of governing them. But
with fear they excite all the passions and habits
whiph are connected with that mean principle
of action, and they extinguish that vigorous spi-
rit, that independent energy of soul, which is
essential to all the active and manly virtues.
Young people, who find that their daily plear
sures depend not so much upon their own exer-

Rexvards and Punishmpits. 3 1 1

tions as upon the humour and caprice of others,
become courtiers; they practise all the arts of
persuasion, and all the crouching hypocrisy
which can deprecate wrath, or propitiate favour.
Their notions of right and wrong cannot be en-
larged ; their recollection of the rewards and pu-
nishments of their childhood are always con-
nected with the ideas of tyranny and slavery;
and when they break their own chains, they are
impatient to impose similar bonds upon their in-
feriors.

An argument has been used to prove, that in
some cases anger is part of the justice of punish-
ment, because " mere reproof, without sufficient
" marks of displeasure and emotion^ affects a child
^^ very little, and is soon forgotten."''^ It can-
not be doubted, that the expression of indigna-
tion is a just consequence of certain faults, and
the general indignation with which these are
spoken of before young people must make a
strong and useful impression upon their minds.
They reflect upon the actions of others ; they
see the effects which these produce upon the
human mind ; they put themselves in the situa-
tion alternately of the person who expresses in-
dignation, and of him who suffers shame ; they

♦ V. Dr,. Priestley's Miscellaneous]Observations relating to
Education, g^ct, vii. of Correctiop, p. 67.

312 practical Education,

measure the fault and its consequences, and
they resolve to conduct themselves so as to
avoid that just indignation of vvliich they dread
to be the object. These are the general conclu-
sions which children of ten or twelve years old
draw when they are impartial spectators ; but
where they are themselves concerned, their feel-
ings and their reasonings are very different. If
they have done any thing which they know to
be wrong, they expect and are sensible that
they deserve displeasure and indignation ; but if
any precise penalty be annexed to the fault, the
person who is to inflict it appears to them in the
character of a judge, who is bound to repress his
own feelings, and coolly execute justice. If
the judge both reproaches and punishes, he
doubles the punishment. Whenever indigna-
tion is expressed, no vulgar, trivial penalties
should accompany it ; the pupil should feel that
it is indignation against his fault, and not against
himself; and that it is not excited in his pre-
ceptor's mind by any petty, personal considera-
tions, A child distinguishes between anger and
indignation very exactly; the one commands his
respect, the other raises his contempt as soon as
Jiis fears subside. Dr. Priestly seems to think,
that ^' it is not possible to express displeasure
" with sufficient force, especially to a child,
" when a man is perfectly cool." May we not

Rexvai^ds and Punishments, . 313

reply to this, that it is scarcely possible to ex-
press displeasure with sufficient prop7^iet]/, espe-
cially to a child, when a man is in a passion.
The propriety is in this case of at least as much
consequence as the force of the reprimand. The
effect which the preceptor's displeasure will pro-
duce must be in some proportion to the esteem
which his pupil feels for him. If he cannot
command his irascible passions, his pupil cannot
continue to esteem him, and there is an end of
all that fear of his disapprobation, which was
founded upon esteem, and which can never be
founded upon .a stronger or better basis. We
should further consider, that the opinions of all
the bystanders, especially if they be any of them
of the pupil's own age, have great influence
upon his mind : it is not to be expected, that
they should all sympathise equally with the an-
gry preceptor ; and we know, that whenever
the indignation expressed aojainst any fault ap-
pears in the least to pass the bounds of exact
justice, the sympathy of the spectators imme-
diately revolts in favour of the culprit ; the fault
is forgotten or excused, and all join in sponta-
neous compassion. In public schools this hap-
pens so frequently, that the master's displeasure
seldom affects the little community with any
sorrow : combined together, they make each
other amends for public punishments by private

314 Practical Education,

pity or encouragement. In families which are
not well regulated^ that is to say, in which the
interests of all the individuals do not coalesce,
the same evils are to be dreaded. Neither in-
dignation nor shame can affect children in such
schools, or such families ; the laws and manners,
public precept and private opinion^ contradict
one another.

In a variety of instances in society, we may
observe, that the best laws and the best princi-
ples are not sufficient to resist the combination
of numbers. " Never attempt to fix infamy to
a number of people at once," says a philosophic
legislator :* this advice showed that he per-
fectly understood the nature of the passion of
shame. Numbers keep one another in counte-
nance ; they form a society for themselves ; and
sometimes by peculiar phrases, and an appro-
priate language, confound the established opi-
nions of virtue and vice, and enjoy a species of
self-complacency independent of public opinion,
and often in direct opposition to their former
conscience. Whenever any set of men want to
get rid of the shame annexed to particular
actions, they begin by changing the names and
epithets which have been generally used to
express them, and which they know are asso-

* V. Code of Russian laws.

Rewards and Pimishnents. 315

dated with the feeHiigs of shame: these feehngs
are not awakened by the new language, and
by degrees they are forgotten, or they are sup-
posed to have been merely prejudices and
habits, which former methods of speaking taught
people to reverence. Thus the most disgraceful
combinations of men, who live by violating and
evading the laws of society, have all a peculiar
phraseology amongst themselves, by which
jocular ideas are associated with the most dis-
reputable actions.

Those who live by depredation on the River
Thames do not call themselves thieves, but
lumpers and 7niidlarks. Coiners give regular
mercantile names to the diiferent branches of
their trade, and to the various kinds of false
money which they circulate ; such as Jlats, or
Jigs^ or jigthings. Unlicensed lottery-wheels
are called little-goes ; and the men who are sent
about to public-houses to entice poor people
into illegal lottery insurances, are called Morocco-
men. A set of villains, hired by these fraudulent
lottery-keepers to resist the civil power during
the drawing of the lottery, call themselves
bludgeon-men ; and in^ the language of robbers
a receiver of stolen goods is said to be staunchy
when it is believed that he will go all lengths
rather than betray the secrets of a gang of high-
waymen.=*

* Colquhoun,

31 6 Practical Educutioji,

Since words have such power, in their turn,
over ideas, we must in education attend to the
language of children as a means of judging^ of
the state of their minds ; and whenever we find,
that in their conversation with one another they
have any slang, which turns moral ideas into
ridicule, we may be certain that this must have
arisen from some defect in their education.
The power of shame must then be tried in some
new shape to break this false association of ideas.
Shame, in a new shape, affects the mind with
surprising force, in the same manner as danger
in a new form alarms the courage of veterans.
An extraordinary instance of this we saw in the
management of Gloucester-gaol ; where a blue
and yellow jacket had been found to have a most
powerful effect upon men supposed to be dead
to shame. The keeper of the prison told us,
that the most unruly offenders could be kept in
awe by the dread of a dress which exposed them
to the ridicule of their companions, no new term
having been yet invented to counteract the
terrors of the yellow jacket. To prevent the
mind froni becoming insensible to shame, it
must be very sparingly used ; and the hope and
possibility of recovering esteem must always be
kept alive. Those who are excluded from
hope are necessarily excluded from virtue ; the
loss of reputation, we see, is almost always fol-

Rewards and Punishments, 3J7

lowed by total de|)ravity. The prejudices which
are harboured against particular classes of peo-
pie usually tend to make the individuals who
are the best disposed amongst these sects
despair of obtaining esteem^ and, consequently,
careless about deserving it. There can be no-
thing inherent in the knavish propensity of
Jews ; but the prevailing opinion, that avarice,
dishonesty, and extortion, are the characteris-
tics of a Jew, has probably induced rriany of
the tribe to justify the antipathy which they
could not conquer. Children are frequently
confirmed in faults by the imprudent and cruel
custom which some parents have of settling early
in life, that such a thing is natural ; that such
and such dispositions are not to be cured ; that
cunning, perhaps, is the characteristic of one?
child, and caprice of another. This general
odium oppresses and dispirits ; such children
think it is in vain to struggle against nature, es-
pecially as they do not clearly understand what
is meant by nature. They submit to our impu-
tations, without knowing how to refute them.
On the contrary, if we treat them with more
good sense and benevolence, it we explain to
them the nature of the human mind, and if we
lay open to them the history of their own, they
will assist us in endeavouring to cure their faults,
and they will not be debilitated by indistinct,

2

318 Practical Education.

superstitious fears. At ten or eleven years old,
children are capable of understanding some of the
general principles of rational morality, and these
they can apply to their own conduct in many
instances, which, however trivial they may ap-
pear, are not beneath our notice.

June 16th, 1796. S (nine years old)

had lost his pencil ; his father said to him, " I
*^' wish to give you another pencil, but I am
" afraid I should do you harm if I did ; you
" would not take care of your things if you did
" not feel some inconvenience w^hen you lose
" them." The boy's lips moved as if he were
saying to himself, ^^ I understand this ; this is
" just.'* His father guessed that these were the
thoughts that were passing in his mind, and-
asked whether he interpreted rightly the motion

of the lips. " Yes," said S ; " that was

" exactly what I was thinking." ^^ Then," said
his father, ^^ I will give you a bit of my own
" pencil this instant ; all I want is to make the
" necessary impression upon your mind ; that is
" all the use of punishment ; you know we do
" not want to torment you."
^*- As young people grow up, and perceive the
consequences of their own actions, and the ad-
vantages of credit and character, they become
extremely solicitous to preserve the good opinion
of those whom they love and esteem. They arc

Rewards and Punishments, 319

now capable of taking the future into their view
as well as the present; and at this period of
their education the hand of authority should
never be hastily used ; the voice of reason will
never fail to make herself heard, especially if
reason speak with the tone of affection. During
the first years of childhood, it did not seem
prudent to make any punishment lasting, because
young children quickly forget their faults, and
having little experience, cannot feel how their
past conduct is likely to affect their future hap-
piness. But as soon as they have more enlarged
experience, the nature of their punishments
should alter ; if we have any reason to esteem or
love them less, our contempt and displeasure
should not lightly be dissipated. Those who
reflect are more influenced by the idea of the
duration, than of the intensity of any mental
pain. In those calculations which are constantly
made before we determine upon action or for-
bearance, some tempers estimate any evil which
is likely to be but of short duration infinitely
below its real importance. Young men of san*
guine and courageous dispositions hence fre-
quently act imprudently; the consequences of
their temerity will, they think, soon be over,
and they feel that they are able to support evil,
for a short time, however great it may be.
Anger they know, is a short-lived passion, and

3^0 Practical Educatioiu

they do not scruple running the hazard of ex-
citing anger in the hearts of those whom they
love the best in the world. The experience of
lasting, sober disapprobation, is intolerably
irksome to them ; any inconvenience which
continues for a length of time wearies them
excessively. After they have endured, as the
consequence of any actions, this species of pu-
nishment, they will long remember their suffer-
ings, and will carefully avoid incurring in future
similar penalties.

Sudden and transient pain appears to be most
effectual with persons of an opposite tempera-
ment. Young people of a torpid, indolent tem-
perament are much under the dominion of habit ;
if they happen to have contracted any disagree-
able or bad habits, they have seldom sufficient
energy to break them. The stimulus of sudden
pain is necessary in this case. The pupil may
be perfectly convinced, that such a habit ought
to be broken, and may wish to break it most
sincerely; bat may yet be incapable of the
voluntary exertion requisite to obtain success.
It would be dangerous to let the habit, however
insignificant, continue victorious, because the
child would hence be discouraged from all
future attempts to battle with it himself. Either
we should not attempt tiie conquest of the
habit, or we should persist till we have van-

Rewards and Punishments. 321

quished. The confidence, which this sense of
success will give the pupil, will probably in
his own opinion be thought well worthy the
price. Neither his reason nor his will was in
fault; all he wanted was strength to break the
diminutive chains of habit; chains which, it
seems, have power to enfeeble their captives
exactly in proportion to the length of time they
are worn.

Every body has probably found from their own
experience how difficult it is to alter little habits
in manners, pronunciation, &c. Children are
often teased with frequent admonitions about
their habits of sitting, standing, walking, talking,
eating, speaking, &c. Parents are early aware
of the importance of agreeable, graceful man-
ners ; every body who sees children can judge,
or think that they can judge, of their manners ;
and from anxiety that children should appear to
advantage in company, parents solicitously watch
all their gestures, and correct all their attitudes
according to that image of the '^ beau idealy^
which happens to be most fashionable. The
most convenient and natural attitudes are not
always the most approved ; the constraint which
children suiFer from their obedience obliges
them at length to rest their tortured muscles,
and to throw themselves for relief into attitudes
the very reverse of those which they have prac-

VOL. I, Y

322 Practical Education.

tised with so much pain. Hence they acquire
opposite habits in their manners, and there is a
continual struggle between these. They find it
impossible to correct instantaneously the awk-
ward tricks which they have acquired, and find
their attempts to conquer themselves ineffectual ;
or else, which is most commonly the catastrophe,
they learn to hear the exhortations and rebukes
of all around them, without being stimulated to
any degree of exertion.* The same voices
which lose their power on these trifling occa-
sions^ lose at the same time much of their general
influence. More power is wasted upon trifling
defects in the manners of children, than can be
imagined by any who have not particularly
attended to this subject. If it be thought indis-
pensably necessary to speak to children eternally
about their manners, this irritating and disagree-
able oflfice should devolve upon somebody whose
influence over the children we are not anxious
to preserve undiminished. A little ingenuity
in contriving the dress, writing-desks, reading-
desks, &c. of children who are any way defective
in their shape, might spare much of the anxiety
which is felt by their parents, and much of the
bodily and mental pain which they alternately

* See the judicious Locke's observations upon the subject
of MannerSf § Ql. of his valuable Treatise on Education.

Rewards and Punishments. 323

endure themselvesi For these patients, would
it not be rather more safe to consult the philo-
sophic physician,'* than the dancing-master who
is not bound to understand either anatomy or
metaphysics ?

Every preventive which is discovered for any
defect, either in manners, temper, or understand-
ing, diminishes the necessity for punishment :
punishments are frequently the abrupt, brutal
resource of ignorance,-^ to cure the effects of
former negligence. With children who have
been reasonably and affectionately educated,
scarcely any punishments are requisite. This is
not an assertion hazarded without experience;
the happy experience of several years, and
of several children of different ages and tem-
pers, justifies this assertion. As for corporal
punishments, they may be necessary where
boys are to be drilled in a given time into
scholars ; but the language of blows need seldom
be used to reasonable creatures. The idea that
it is disgraceful to be governed by force should
be kept alive in the minds of children ; the
dread of shame is a more powerful motive thai^
the fear of bodily pain. To prove the truth of
this we may recollect that few people have ever

• See vol. ii. of Zoonomia.

t Wf Jji^lieve this is Williams's idea,

T 2

324 Pi^actical Education,

been known to destroy themselves in order to
escape from bodily pain ; but numbers, to avoid
shame, have put an end to their existence. It
has been a question, vi^hether mankind are most
governed by hope or by fear, by rewards or by
punishments. This question, hke many others
which have occasioned tedious debates, turns
chiefly upon words. Hope and fear arc some-
times used to denote mixed and sometimes
unmixed passions. Those who speak of them
as unmixed passions, cannot have accurately
examined their own feelings.* The probability
of good produces hope ; the probabihty of evil
excites fear ; and as this probability appears less
or greater, more remote or nearer to us, the
mind fluctuates between the opposite passions.
When the probability increases on either side,
so does the corresponding passion. Since these
passions seldom exist in absolute separation
from one another, it appears that we cannot
philosophically speak of either as an independent
motive : to the question therefore, *' which
*^ governs mankind the most, hope or fear ? '^
we cannot give an explicit answer.

When we would determine upon the probability
of any good or evil, we are insensibly influenced,,
not only by the view of the circumstances before

- * -Hmne»f l)iss€itation on the Passions.

Rcxvards and Punishments, 325

us, but also by our previous habits ; we judge
ot only by the general laws of human events,
but also by our own individual experience.
If we have been usually successful, we are
inclined to hope ; have we been accustomed to
misfortunes, we are hence disposed to fear.
" Caesar and his fortune are on board," exclaimed
the confident hero to the mariners. Hope excites
the mind to exertion ; fear represses all activity.
As a preventive from vice you may employ fear ;
to restrain the excesses of all the furious passions
it is useful and necessary ; but would you rouse
the energies of virtue, you must inspire and in»
vigorate the soul with hope. Courage, genero-
sity, industry, perseverance, all the magic of
talents, all the powers of genius, all the virtues
that appear spontaneous in great minds, spring
from hope. But how different is the hope of a
great and of a little mind ; not only are the objects
of this hope different, but the passion itself is
raised and supported in a different manner. A
feeble person, if he presumes to hope, hopes as
superstitiously as he fears ; he keeps his attention
sedulously fixed upon all the probabilities in his
favour ; he will not listen to any arguments in
opposition to his wishes ; he knows he is unrea-f
sonable, he persists in continuing so ; he does
not connect any idea of exertion with hope ; his
hope usually rests upon the exertions of others.

326, Practical Education.

or upon some fortuitous circumstances. A man
of a strong. mind reasons before he hopes; he
takes in at one quick, comprehensive glance,
all that is to be seen both for and against him ;
he is from experience disposed to depend much
upon his own exertions ; if they can turn the
balance in his favour, he hopes, he acts, he
succeeds. Poets in ^ all ages have celebrated
the charms of hope ; vs^ithout her propitious
influence, life, they tell us, would be worse
than death ; without her smiles, nature would
smile in vain ; without her promises, treacherous
though they often prove, reality would have
nothing to give worthy of our acceptance.
We are not bound, however, to understand li-
terally the rhetoric of poets. Hope is to them
a beautiful and useful allegorical personage :
sometimes leaning upon an anchor ; sometimes
*^ waving her golden hair ;" always young, smiling,
enchanting, furnished with a rich assortment of
epithets suited to the ode, the sonnet, the ma-
drigal, with a traditionary number of images and
allusions ; what more can a poet desire ? Men,
except when they are poets, do not value hope
as the first of terrestrial blessings. The action
and energies which hope produces are to many
more agreeable than the passion itself; that fe-
verish state of suspense which prevents settled
thought or vigorous exertion, far from being

Rewards and Punishments, 327

agreeable, is highly painful to a well regulated
mind ; the continued repetition of the same
ideas and the same calculations fatigues the
mind, which in reasoning has been accustomed
to arrive at some certain conclusion, or to ad-
vance at least a step at every effort. The exer-
cise of the mind in changing the views of its ob-
ject, which is supposed to be a great part of the
pleasure of hope, is soon over to an active ima-
gination, which quickly runs through all the
possible changes ; nor is this exercise, even
while it lasts, so delightful to a man who has a
variety of intellectual occupations, as it fre-
quently appears to him who knows scarcely any
other species of mental activity. The vacillat-
ing state of mind, peculiar to hope and fear, is
by no means favourable to industry ; half 6ur
time is generally consumed in speculating upon
the reward, instead of earning it, whenever the
value of that reward is not preciselT/ ascertainable*
In all occupations where judgment or accurate
observation is essential, if the reward of our la-
bour is brought suddenly to excite our hope,
there is an immediate interruption of all effec-
tual labour ; the thoughts take a new direction,
the mind becomes tremulous, and nothing de-
cisive can be done, till the emotions of hope and
fear either subside or are vanquished.

M. I'Abbe Cbappe, who was sent by the king

52^^ Practical Education »

of France^ at the desire of the French Academy,
to Siberia, to observe the transit of Venus, gives
us a striking picture of the state of his own
mind when the moment of this famous observa-
tion approached. In the description of his own
feehngs this traveller may be admitted as good
authority. A few hours before the observation,
a black cloud appeared in the sky ; the idea of
returning to Paris, after such a long and peri-
lous journey, without having seen the transit of
Venus ; the idea of the disappointment to his
king, to his country, to all the philosophers in
Europe; threw him into a state of agitation,
*^ which must have been felt to be conceived.'*
At length the black cloud vanished ; his hopes
affected him almost as much as his fears had
done ; he fixed his telescope, saw the planet ;
his eye wandered over the immense space a
thousand times in a minute ; his secretary stood
on one side wath his pen in his hand ; his assist-
ant, with his eye fixed upon the watch, was sta-
tioned on the other side. The moment of the
total immersion arrived, the agitated philosopher
was seized with an universal shivering, and
could scarcely command his thoughts sufficiently
to secure the observation.

The uncertainty of reward, and the conse-
quent agitations of hope and fear, operate as un-
fevourably upon the moral as upon the intellec-

Rewards and Punishments. 329

tual character. The favour of princes is an un-
certain reward ; courtiers are usually despicable
and wretched beings ; they live upon hope, but
their hope is not connected with exertion.
Those who court popularity are not less despi-
cable or less wretched : their reward is uncertain :
what is more uncertain than the affection of the
multitude ? The Proteus character of Wharton,
so admirably drawn by Pope, is a striking pic-
ture of a man who has laboured through life
with the- vague hope of obtaining universal ap-
plause.

Let us suppose a child to be educated by a
variety of persons, all differing in their tastes and
tempers, and in their notions of right and wrong ;
all having the power to reward and punish their
common pupil. What must this pupil become ?
A mixture of incongruous characters ; super-
stitious, enthusiastic^ indolent, and perhaps pro-
fligate : superstitious, because his own contra-
dictory experience would expose him to fear
without reason; enthusiastic, because he would
from the same cause form absurd expectations ;
indolent, because the xvill of others has been the
measure of his happiness, and his own exertions
have never procured him any certain reward ;
profligate, because, probably from the confused
variety of his moral lessons, he has at last con-
cluded that right and wrong are but unmeaning

330 Practical Education.

wrds. Let us change the destiny of this child,
by changing his education. Place him under
the sole care of a person of an enlarged capa-
city and a steady mind ; who has formed just
notions of right and wrong; and who in the dis-
tribution of reward and punishment, of praise
and blame, will be prompt, exact, invariable.
His pupil will neither be credulous, rash, nor
profligate ; and he certainly will not be indolent ;
his habitual and his rational belief will in all
circumstances agree with each other ; his hope
will be the prelude to exertion, and his fear will
restrain him only in situations where action is
dangerous.

Even amongst children, we must frequently
have observed a prodigious diiference in the
quantity of hope and fear which is felt by those
who have been well or ill educated. An ill edu-
cated child^ is in daily, hourly, alternate agonies
of hope and fear ; the present never occupies or
interests him, but his soul is intent upon some
future gratification, which never pays him by
its full possession. As soon as he awakens in
the morning, he recollects some promised bless-
ing, and till the happy moment arrives, he is
wretched in impatience : at breakfast he is to be
blessed with some toy, that he is to have the
moment breakfast is finished ; and when he finds
the toy does not delight him, he is to be blessed

Rewards and Pmiishments. 331

with a sweet pudding at dinner^ or with sitting
up half an hour later at night than his usual
bed-time. Endeavour to find some occupation
that shall amuse him, you will not easily suc-
ceed, for he will still anticipate what you are
going to say or to do. " What will come next? "
" What shall we do after this ? " are, as Mr.
Williams, in his able lectures upon education,
observes, the questions incessantly asked by
spoiled children. This species of idle, restless
curiosity does not lead to the acquisition of
knowledge ; it prevents the possibility of instruc-
tion ; it is not the animation of a healthy mind,
it is the debility of an over-stimulated temper.
There is a very sensible letter in Mrs. Macau-
ley's book upon education, on the impropriety
of filling the imagination of young people with
prospects of future enjoyment: the foolish sys-
tem of promising great rewards, and fine pre-
sents, she clearly shows creates habitual disorders
in the minds of children.

The happiness of life depends more upon a
succession of small enjoyments, than upon great
pleasures ; and those who become incapable of
tasting the moderately agreeable sensations, can-
not fill up the intervals of their existence be-
tween their great delights. The happiness of
childhood peculiarly depends upon their enjoy-
ment of little pleasures j of these they have a

332 Practical Education.

continual variety ; they h^ve perpetual occupa-
tion for their senses^ in observing all the objects
around them^ and all their faculties may be exer-
cised upon suitable subjects. The pleasure of
this exercise is in itself sufficient : we need not
say to a child, " Look at the wings of this beau-
" tiful butterfly, and I will give you a piece of
" plum-cake ; observe how the butterfly curls
" his proboscis, how he dives into the honied
" flowers, and I will take you in a coach to pay
^^ a visit with me, my dear. Remember the
*^ pretty story you read this morning, and you
" shall have a new coat." Without the new
coat, or the visit, or the plum-cake, the child
would have had sufficient amusement in the
story and the sight of the butterfly's proboscis :
the rewards, besides, have no natural connexion
with the things themselves; and they create,
where they are most liked, a taste for factitious
pleasures. Would you encourage benevolence,
generosity, or prudence, let each have its appro-
priate reward of affection, esteem, and confi-
dence ;'^ but do not, by ill-judged bounties,
attempt to force these virtues into premature
display. The rewards which are given to bene-
volence and generosity in children frequently

* See Locke, and an excellent little essay of Madame de
Lambert's,

Rexcards and Pu7iishments, 333

encourage selfishness, and sometimes teach them
cunning. Lord Kaimes tells us a story, which
is precisely a case in point. Two boys, the sons
of the earl of Elgin, were permitted by their
father to associate with the poor boys in the
neighbourhood of his lordship's house. One day
the earl's sons being called to dinner, a lad who
was playing with them said, that he would wait
till they returned : '^ There is no dinner for me
*' at home," said the poor boy. " Come with
" us, then," said the earl's sons. The boy re-
fused ; and when they asked him if he had any
money to buy a dinner, he answered, " No."
'^ Papa," said the eldest of the young gentlemen
when he got home, " what was the price of the
" silver buckles you gave me?" " Five shil-
" lings." '' Let me have the money, and I'll
'' give you the buckles." It was done accord-
ingly, says lord Kaimes. The earl inquiring
privately, found that the money was given to
the lad who had no dinne7\ The buckles were
returned, and the boy was highly commended
for being kind to his companion. The com-
mendations were just, but the buckles should
not have been returned ; the boy should have
been suffered steadily to abide by his own bar-
gain ; he should have been let to feel the plea-
sure, and to pay tlie exact price of his own gene-
rosity.

334 Practical Education,

If we attempt to teach children that they can
be generous, without giving up sonne of their
own pleasures for the sake of other people, we
attempt to teach them what is false. If we once
make them amends for any sacrifice they have
made^ we lead them to expect the same remu-
neration upon a future occasion ; and then, in
fact, they act with a direct view to their own
interest, and govern themselves by the calcula-
tions of prudence, instead of following the dic-
tates of benevolence. It is true, that if we
speak with accuracy, we must admit, that the
most benevolent and generous persons act from
the hope of receiving pleasure, and their enjoy-
ment is more exquisite than that of the most
refined selfishness: in the lano^uafje of M. de
Rochefoucault, we should be therefore forced to
acknowledge, that the most benevolent is always
the most selfish person. This seeming paradox
is answered, by observing, that the epithet self-
ish is given to those who prefer pleasures in
which other people have no share ; we change
the meaning of words when we talk of its being
selfish to like the pleasures of sympathy or be-
nevolence, because these pleasures cannot be
confined solely to the idea of self. When we
say that a person pursues his own interest more
by being generous than by being covetous, we
take into the account the general sum of his
6

Rewards and Punishment s* 335

ao-reeable feelings, we do not balance pruden-
tially his loss or gain npon particular occasions.
The generous man may himself be convinced,
that the sum of his happiness is more increased
by the feelings of benevolence, than it could be
by the gratification of* avarice ; but, though his
understanding may perceive the demonstration
of this moral theorem, though it is the remote
principle of his whole conduct, it does not occur
to his memory in the form of a prudential apho-
rism, whenever he is going to do a generous
action. It is essential to our ideas of generosity
that no such reasoning should at that moment
pass in his mind ; we know that the feelings of
generosity are associated with a number of en-
thusiastic ideas ; we can sympathise with the
virtuous insanity of the man who forgets himself
whilst he thinks of others ; we do not so readily
sympathise with the cold strength of mind of the
person, who, deliberately preferring the greatest
possible share of happiness, is benevolent by rule
and measure.

Whether we are just or not, in refusing our
sympathy to the man of reason, and in giving
our spontaneous approbation to the man of en-
thusiasm, we shall not here examine. But the
reasonable man, who has been convinced of this
propensity in human nature, will take it into his
calculations ; he will perceive, that he loses, in

3S6 Practical Education.

losing the pleasure of sympathy, part of the sum
total of his possible happiness ; he will conse-
quently wish, that he could add this item of
pleasure to the credit side of his account. This^
however, he cannot accomplish, because, though
he can correct his calculations, it is not in the
power, even of the most potent reason, suddenly
to break habitual associations ; ^uch less is it in
the power of cool reason to conjure up warm
enthusiasm. Yet in this case enthusiasm is the
thing required.

What the man of reason cannot do for himself,
after his associations are strongly formed, might
have been easily accomplished in his early edu-
cation. He might have been taught the same
general principles, but with different habits ; by
early associating the pleasures of sympathy, and
praise, and affection, with all generous and be-
nevolent actions ; his parents might have joined
these ideas so forcibly in his mind, that the one
set of ideas should never recur without the
pther. Whenever the words benevolence or ge-
uerpsity were pronounced, the feelings of habi-
tual pleasure would recur ; and he would, inde-
pendently of reason, desire from association to
be generous. When enthusiasm is fairly justi-
fied by reason, we have nothing to fear from her
vehemence.

In rewarding children for the prudential vir-
2

Rervards and Punishments'. 337

tueSj such as order, cleanliness, oeconomy, tem-
perance, &c. we should endeavour to make the
rewards the immediate consequence of the vir-
tues themselves, and at the same time approba-
tion should be shown in speaking of these use-
ful qualities. A gradation must ► however al-
ways be observed in our praises of different vir-
tues ; those that are the most useful to society,
as truth, justice, and humanity, must stand the
highest in the scale ; those that are most agree-
able claim the next place. Those good quali-
ties, which must wait a considerable time for
their reward, such as perseverance, prudence,
&c. we must not expect early from young peo-
ple. Till they have had experience, how can
they form any idea about the future ? till they
have been punctually rewarded for their indus*
try, or for their prudence, they do not feel the
value of prudence and perseverance. Time is
necessary for all these lessons ; and those who
leave time out in their calculations, will always
be disappointed in whatever plan of education
they may pursue.

Many to whom the subject is familiar will be
fatigued, probably, by the detailed manner in
which it has been thought necessary to explain
the principles by which we should guide our-
selves in the distribution of rewards and punish-
ments to children. Those who quickly seize,

VOL. I. z

338 Practical Education^

and app^y general ideas, cannot endure with pa-
tience the tedious minuteness of didactic illus^
tration. But on the contrary those who are ac*
tually engaged in practical education, will not
be satisfied with general precepts ; and, however
plausible any theory may appear, they are well
aware, that its utiHty must depend upon a va-
riety of small circumstances to which writers of
theories often neglect to advert. At the hazard
of being thought tedious, those must be minute
in explanation who desire to be generally usefuL
An old French writer,* more remarkable for ori-
ginality of thought, than for the graces of style,
was once reproached by a friend with the fre*
quent repetitions which were to be found in his
works* *' Name them to me," said the author.
The critic with obliging precision mentioned all
the ideas which had most frequently recurred in
the book. ^* I am satisfied," replied the honest
author ; " you remember my ideas ; I repeated
" them so often to prevent you from forgetting
" them. Without my repetitions we should ne-
" ver have succeeded."

* The Abbe St. Pierre. See his Eloge by D*Alembert.

Sympathy and, Sensibility. 339

CHAPTER X.

)

On Sympathy and Sensibility,

X HE artless expressions of sympathy and sen-
sibility in children are peculiarly pleasing ;
people who in their commerce with the world
have been disgusted and deceived by falsehood
and affectation^ listen with delight to the genuine
language of nature. Those who have any in-
terest in the education of children have yet a
higher sense of pleasure in observing symptoms
of their sensibility ; they anticipate the future
virtues which early sensibility seems certainly
to promise ; the future happiness which these
virtues will diffuse. Nor are they unsupported
by philosophy in these sanguine hopes. No
theory was ever developed with more ingenious
elegance, than that which deduces all our moral
sentiments from sympathy. The direct influence
of sympathy upon all social beings is sufficiently
obvious, and we immediately perceive its neces-
sary connection with compassion, friendship, and

Z2

340 Practical Education,

benevolence ; but the subject becomes more
intricate when we are to analyse our sense of pro-
priety and justice ; of merit and demerit ; of
gratitude and resentment ; self-complacency or
remorse ; ambition and shame.''*'

We allow without hesitation, that a being
destitute of sympathy could never have any of
these feelings, and must consequently be inca-
pable of all intercourse with society ; yet we
must at the same time perceive, that a being
endowed with the most exquisite sympathy must-,
without the assistance and education of reason,
be, if not equally incapable of social intercourse,
fer more dangerous to the happiness of society,
A person governed by sympathy alone must be
influenced by the bad as well as by the good
passions of others ; he must feel resentment with
the angry man; hatred with the malevolent;
jealousy with the jealous ; and avarice with the
miser : the more lively his sympathy with these
painful feelings, the greater must be his misery :
the more forcibly he is impelled to action by
this sympathetic influence, the greater, pro^
bably, must be his imprudence and his guilt.
Let us even suppose a being capable of sympa-
thising only with the best feehngs of his fellow-
Gt^atures, ^till, without the direction of reason,

* Adam Smith.

Sympathy and Sensibility. 341

he would be a nuisance in the world ; his pity
would stop the hand, and overturn the balance
of justice ; his love would be as dangerous as
his pity ; his gratitude would exalt his bene*
factor at the expense of the whole human race ;
his sj'^mpathy with the rich^ the prosperous, the
great, and the fortunate, would be so suddeii,
and so violent, as to leave him no time for re-
flection upon the consequences of tyranny, or
the miseries occasioned by monopoly. No time
for reflection, did we say? We forgot that we
were speaking of a being destitute of the reason-
ing faculty ! Such a being, no matter what his
virtuous sympathies might be, must act either
like a madman or a fool. On sympathy we
cannot depend either for the correctness of a
man's moral sentiments, or for the steadiness of
his moral conduct. It is very common to talk
of the excellence of a person's heart ; of the
natural goodness of his disposition ; when these
expressions distinctly mean any thing, they must
refer to natural sympathy, or a superior degree of
sensibility. Experience, however, does not
teach us, that sensibility and virtue have any
certain connexion with each other. No one
can read the works of Sterne or of Rousseau,
without believing these men to have been en-
dowed with extraordinary sensibility ; yet who
would propose their conduct in life as a model

342 practical Education.

for imitation r That quickness of sympathy with
present objects of distress, which constitutes
compassion, is usually thought a virtue, but it is
a virtue frequently found in persons of aban-
doned character.

., ^' Should any one of us," says Mandeville,=*
^' be locked up in a ground-room, where in a
*' yard joining to it there was a thriving good-
*^ humoured child at play, of two or three years
^' old^ so near us that through the grates of the
^^ window we could almost touch it with our
^^ hands ; and if^ whilst we took delight in the
'^ harmless diversion, and imperfect prattle, of
^' the innocent babe, a nasty, overgrown sow
*^ should come in upon the child, set it a scream-
^' ing, and frighten it out of its wits ; it is natural
" to think that this would make us uneasy, and
^^ that with crying out, and making all the
^' menacing noise we could, we should endeavour
^^ to drive the sow away. But if this should
*^ happen to be an half -starved creature, that, mad
" with hunger, went roaming about in quest of
^' food, and we should behold the ravenous
" brute, in spite of our cries, and all the threat-
^^ ening gestures we could think of, actually
" lay hold of the helpless infant, destroy, and
*^ devour it; — to see her widely open her de-

* Essay upon Charity Schools.

Sympathy and Sensibility. 343

" structive jaws, and the poor lamb beat down
" with greedy haste ; to look on the defenceless
" posture of tender limbs first traaipled upon,
*^ then torn asunder ; to see the filthy snout
** digging in the yet living entrails, suck up the
'^ smoaking blood, and now and then to hear
*^ the crackling of the bones, and the Cruel ani-
*' mal grunt with savage pleasure over the hor-
'' rid banquet ; to hear and see all this, what
'^ torture would it give the soul beyond expres-
*^ sion \-**^^^^**^^''i^
" Not only a man of humanity, of good morals,
*^ and commiseration, but likewise an highway-
" man, an house-breaker, or a murderer, could
" feel anxieties on such an occasion."

Amongst those monsters, who are pointed out
by historians to the just detestation of all man«
kind, we meet with instances of casual sympa-
thy and sensibility ; even their vices frequently
prove to us, that they never became utterly in-
dift'erent to the opinion and feelings of their
fellow-creatures. The dissimulation, jealousy,
suspicion, and cruelty of Tiberius, originated
perhaps, more in his anxiety about the opinions
which were formed of his character, than in his
fears of any conspiracies against his life. The
^' judge within,'' the habit of viezving his own
conduct in the light in which it was beheld by the
impai^tial spectatoi^y prompted him to new crimes;

344 Practical Education*

and thus his unextinguished sympathy, and hi^
exasperated sensibiHty, drove him to excesses,
from which a more torpid temperament might
have preserved him.* When, upon his present-
ing the sons of Germanicus to the senate, Tibe-
rius beheld the tenderness with which these
young men were received, he was moved to
u ch an agony of jealousy as instantly to be-
seech the senate that he might resign the em-
pire. We cannot attribute either to policy, or
fear, this strong emotion, because we know
that the senate was at this time absolutely at
the disposal of Tiberius, and the lives of the
sons of Germanicus depended upon his plea-
sure.

The desire to excel, according to " Smith's
" Theory of Moral Sentiments," is to be re-
solved principally into our love of the sympa-
thy of our fellow-creatures. We wish for their
sympathy, either in our success, or in the plea-
sure we feel in superiority. The desire for
this refined modification of sympathy may be
the motive of good and great actions, but it
cannot be trusted as a moral principle. Nero's
love of sympathy made him anxious to be ap-
plauded on the stage as a fiddler and a buffoon,
Tiberius banished one of his philosophic cour-

♦ See Smith.

Sympathy and Sensibility. 34 5

tiers, and persecuted him till the unfortunate
man laid violent hands upon himself, merely
because he had discovered that the emperor
read books in the morning to prepare himself
with questions for his literary society at night.
Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, sued in the
most abject manner for an Olympic crown, and
sent a critic to the gallies for finding fault with
his verses. Had not these men a sufficient de-
gree of sensibility to praise, and more than a
sufficient desire for the sympathy of their fellow-
creatures ?

At the age when children begin to unfold
their ideas, and to to express their thoughts in
words, they are such interesting and entertain-
ing companions, that they attract a large por-
tion of our daily attention : we listen eagerly
to their simple observations : we enter into
their young astonishment at every new object ;
we are delighted to watch all their emotions;
we help them with words to express their ideas ;
we anxiously endeavour to understand their
imperfect reasonings, and are pleased to find, or
put them in the right. This season of univer-
sal smiles and courtesy is delightful to chil-
dren whilst it lasts, but it soon passes away ;
they soon speak without exciting any astonish-
ment, and instead of meeting with admiration
for every attempt to express an idea, they aro
repulsed for troublesome volubility; even when

346 Practical Education.

they talk sense, they are suffered to talk un-
heard, or else they are checked for unbecom-
ing presumption. Children feel this change in
pubhc opinion and manners most severely ;
they are not sensible of any change in them-
selves,' except, perhaps, they are conscious of
having improved both in sense and language.
This unmerited loss of their late gratuitous al-
lowance of sympathy usually operates unfavour-
ably upon the temper of the sufferers : they
become shy and siknt, and ^ reserved, if not
sullen ; they withdraw from our capricious so-
ciety, and they endeavour to console them-
selves with other pleasures. They feel discon-
tented with their own little occupations and
amusements, for want of the spectators and the
audience which used to be at their command.
Children of a timid temper, or of an indolent
disposition, are quite dispirited and bereft of all
energy in these circumstances ; others, with
greater vivacity, and more voluntary exertion,
endeavour to supply the loss of universal sym-
pathy by the invention of independent occupa-
tions ; but they feel anger and indignation, when
they are not rewarded with any smiles or any
praise for their " virtuous toil." They natu-
rally seek for new companions, either amongst
children of their own age, or amongst complai-
sant servants. Immediately all the business of
education is at a stand ; for neither these ser-

St/mpathy and Sensibility, 84/

vants, nor these playfellows, are capable of be-
coming their instructors ; nor can tutors hope to
succeed, who have transferred their power over
the pleasures, and consequently over the affec-
tions, of their pupils. Sympathy now becomes
the declared enemy of all the constituted authori-
ties. What chance is there of obedience or of
happiness, under such a government?

Would it not be more prudent to prevent,
than to complain, of these evils ? Sympathy is
our first, best friend, in education, and by judi-
cious management might long continue our faith-
ful ally.

Instead of lavishing our smiles and our atten-
tion upon young children for a short period just
at that age when they are amusing playthings,
should not we do more wisely if we reserved
some portion of our kindness a few years lon-
ger ? By a proper ceconomy our sympathy may
last for many years, and may continually
contribute to the most useful purposes. In-
stead of accustoming our pupils early to such^
a degree of our attention as cannot be supported
long on our parts, we should rather suffer them
to feel a little ennui at that age, when they can
have but few independent or useful occupations.
We should employ ourselves in our usual man-
ner, and converse, without allowing children to
interrupt us with frivolous prattle; but when*

6

348 Practical Educatmu

ever they ask sensible questions, make just ob
servations, or show a disposition to acquire
knowledge, we should assist and encourage them
with praise and affection ; gradually as they
become capable of taking any part in conver-
sation, they should be admitted into society, and
they will learn of themselves, or we may teach
them, that useful and agreeable qualities are
those by which they must secure the pleasures
of sympathy. Esteem, being associated with
sympathy, will increase its value, and this con-
nexion should be made as soon, and kept as sa-
cried in the mind, as possible.

With respect to the sympathy which children
feel for each other, it must be carefully managed,
or it will counteract, instead of assisting us, in
education. It is natural that those who are
placed nearly in the same circumstances should
feel alike, and sympathise with one another;
but children feel only for the present, they have
few ideas of the future, and consequently all
that they can desire, either for themselves, or
for their companions, is what will immediately^
please. Education looks to the future, and fre-
quently we must ensure future advantage^ even
at the expense of present pain or restraint.
The companion and the tutor then, supposing
each to be equally good and equally kind, must
command in a very different degree the sympa^

Sympathy and Sensibility, 349

thy of the child. It may, notwithstanding, be
questioned whether those who are constant
companions in their idle hours, when they are
laery young, are Hkely to be either as fond of
one another when they grow up, or even as
happy whilst they are children, as those who
spend less time together. Whenever the hu-
mours, interests, and passions, of others cross
our own, there is an end qf sympathy ; and this,
happens almost every hour in the day with chil-
dren. It is generally supposed that they learn to
live in friendship with each other, and to bear
with one another's little faults habitually; that
they even reciprocally cure these faults^, and
learn, by early experience, those principles of
honour and justice on which society depends.
We may be deceived in this reasoning by a false
analogy.

^ We call the society of children society in minia-
ture ; the proportions of the miniature are so
much altered, that it is by no means an accurate
resemblance of that which exists in the civilized
world. Amongst children of different ages,
strength, and talents, there must always be
tyranny, injustice, and that worst species of in-
equality, which arises from superior force on the
one side, and abject timidity on the other. Of
this the spectators of juvenile disputes and
quarrels are sometimes sensible, and they hastily
interfere and endeavour to part the combatants.

350 Practical Education,

by pronouncing certain moral sentences, such
as, ^' Good boys never quarrel ; brothers must
" love and help one another." But these sen-
tences seldom operate as a charm upon the
angry passions ; the parties concerned hearing
it asserted that they must love one another, at
the very instant when they happen to feel that
they cannot, are still farther exasperated, and
they stand at bay, sullen in hatred, or approach
hypocritical in reconciliation. It is more easy to
prevent occasions of dispute, than to remedy
the bad consequences which petty altercations
produce. Young children should be kept asun-
der at all times and in all situations, in which
it is necessary, or probable, that their appetites
and passions should be in direct competition.
Two hungry children, with their eager eyes
fixed upon one and the same bason of bread and
milk, do not sympathise with each other, though
they have the same sensations ; each perceives,
that if the other eats the bread and milk, he
cannot eat it. Hunger is more powerful than
sympathy ; but satisfy the hunger of one of the
parties, and immediately he will begin to feel
for his companion, and will wish that his hunger
should also be satisfied. Even Mr. Barnet, the
epicure, who is so well described in Moore's
excellent novel,* after he has crammed himself

* Ednrard.

Sympathy and Sensiblity. 351

to the throat, asks his wife to " try to eat a bit."
Intelligent preceptors will apply the instance of
the bason of bread and milk in a variety of appa-
rently dissimilar circumstances.

We may observe, that the more quickly
children reason, the sooner they discover how
far their interests are anywise incompatible with
the interests of their companions. The more rea-
dily a boy calculates, the sooner he would per-
ceive, that if he were to share his bason of bread
and milk equally with a dozen of his companions,
his own portion must be small. The accuracy
of his mental division would prevent him from
offering to part with that share which, perhaps,
a more ignorant accountant would be ready to
surrender at once, without being on that account
more generous. Children, who are accurate
observers of the countenance, and who have a
superior degree of penetration, discover very
early the symptoms of displeasure, or of affec-
tion, in their friends ; they also perceive quickly
the dangers of rival ship from their companions.
If experience convinces them, that they must
lose in proportion as their companions gain,
either in fame, or in favour, they will necessa-
rily dislike them as rivals ; their hatred will be
as vehement, as their love of praise and affection
is ardent. Thus children, who have the most
lively sympathy, are, unless they be judiciously

352 Practical Education,

educated, the most in danger of feeling early
the malevolent passions of jealousy and envy.
It is inhuman, and in every point of vievv
unjustifiable in us, to excite these painful feelings
in children, as we too often do by the careless
or partial distribution of affection and applause.
Exact justice will best prevent jealousy ; each
individual submits to justice, because each, in
turn, feels the benefit of its protection. Some
preceptors, with benevolent intentions, labour to
preserve a perfect equality amongst their pupils,
and from the fear of exciting envy in those who
are inferior, avoid uttering any encomiums upon
superior talents and merit. This management
seldom succeeds ; the truth cannot be con-
cealed ; those who feel their ^ own superiority
make painful reflections upon the injustice done
to them by the policy of their tutors ; those
who are sensible of their own inferiority are not
comforted by the courtesy and humiliating for-
bearance with which they are treated. It is
therefore best to speak the plain truth ; to give
to all their due share of affection and applause ;
at the same time we should avoid blaming one
child at the moment when we praise another ;
we should never put our pupils in contrast with
one another, nor yet should we deceive them as
to their respective excellencies and defects.
Our comparison should rather be made between
3

Sympathy and Sensibility. 353

what the pupil has heen^ aitid what he is^ than be-
tween what he is^ and what any body else is not.^
By this style of praise we may induce children to
become emulous of their former selves, instead
of being envious of their competitors. Without
deceit or aifectation, we may also take care to
associate general pleasure in a family with par-
ticular commendations ; thus, if one boy is
remarkable for prudence, and another for ge-
nerosity, we should not praise the generosity of
the one at the expense of the prudence of the
other, but we should give to each virtue its just
measure of applause. If one girl sings, and
another draws, remarkably well, we may show
that we are pleased with both agreeable accom-
plishments, without bringing them into compa-
rison. Nor is it necessary that we should be in
a desperate hurry to balance the separate degrees
of praise which we distribute exactly at the
same moment ; because if children are sure that
the reward of their industry and ingenuity is
secured by our justice, they will trust to us^
though that reward may be for a few hours de-
layed. It is only where workmen have no
confidence in the integrity or punctuality of their
masters, that they are impatient of any acciden-
tal delay in the payment of their wages.

* V. Rousseau and Williams.
VOL. !• 2 A

354 Practical Education.

With the precautions which have been men-
tioned we may hope to see children grow up in
friendship together. The whole sum of their
pleasure is much increased by mutual sympathy.
This happy moral truth, upon which so many
of our virtues depend, should be impressed upon
the mind : it should be clearly demonstrated to
the reason ; it should not be repeated as an h
priori sentimental assertion.

Those who have observed the sudden, violent,
and surprising effects of emulation in public
schools, will regret the want of this power in
the intellectual education of their pupils at home.
Even the acquisition of talents and knowledge
ought, however, to be but a secondary consider-
ation, subordinate to the general happiness of
our pupils. If we could have superior knowledge
upon condition that we should have a malevolent
disposition, and an irritable temper, should we,
setting every other moral consideration aside,
be wiHing to make the purchase at such a price ?
Let any person, desirous to see a striking picture
of the effects of scholastic competition upon the
moral character, look at the life of that wonder
of his age the celebrated Abeillard. As the taste
and manners of the present times are so different
from those of the age in which he lived, we see,
without any species of deception, the real value
of the learning in which he excelled, and we

Sympathy and Sensibility, 355

can judge both of his acquirements, and of his
character without prejudice. We see him goaded
on by rivalship, and literary ambition, to as-
tonishing exertions at one time ; at another torpid
in monkish indolence ; at one time we see him in-
toxicated with adulation ; at another listless, de-
sponding, abject, incapable of maintaining his
own self-approbation without the suffrages of those
whom he despised. If his biographer* does him
justice, a more selfish, irritable, contemptible,
miserable being, than the learned Abeillard
could scarcely exist.

A philosopher,^!- who, if we might judge of him
by the benignity of his writings, was surely of a
most amiable and happy temper, has yet left us
a melancholy and discouraging history of the
unsociable condition of men of superior know-
ledge and abilities. He supposes that those who
have devoted much time to the cultivation of
their understandings, have habitually less sym-
pathy, or less exercise for their sympathy, than
those who live less abstracted from the world;
that consequently " all their social, and all theif
" public affections, lose their natural warmth

* Berington's Life of Abeillard,

f Dr. John Gregory. Comparative View of the State and
Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World. See vol.
ii, of his Works, from page 100 to 114.
a A 2

356 Practical Edncatioiu

C(

and vigour," whilst their selfish passions ar«
cherished and strengthened, being kept in con-
stant play by literary rivalship. It is to be hoped
that there are men of the most extensive learn-
ing and genius, now living, who could, from
their own experience, assure us that those are
obsolete observations, no longer applicable to
modern human nature. At all events we, who
refer so much to education, are hopefully of
opinion, that education can prevent these evils,
in common with almost all the other evils of
life. It would be an error, fatal to all improve-
ment, to believe that the cultivation of the
understanding impedes the exercise of the social
affections. Obviously a man who secludes
himself from the world, and whose whole life
is occupied with abstract studies, cannot enjoy
any pleasure from his social affections ; his ad-
miration of the dead is so constant, that he ha^
no time to feel any sympathy with the living.
An individual of this ruminating species is hu-
mourously delineated in Mrs. D'Arblay's Camilla.
Men, who are compelled to unrelenting labour,
whether by avarice, or by literary ambition, are
equally to be pitied. They are not models for
imitation ; they sacrifice their happiness to
some strong passion or interest. Without this
ascetic abstinence from the domestic and social

Sympathy and Sensibility. 357

pleasures of life, surely persons may cultivate
their understandings, and acquire, by mixing
with their fellow creatures, a variety of useful
knowledge.

An ingenious theorist * supposes, that the
exercise of any of our faculties is always attend-
ed with pleasure, as long as that exercise can
be continued without fatigue. This pleasure,
arising from the due exercise of our mental
powers, he maintains to be the foundation of
our most agreeable sentiments. If there be
any truth in these ideas, of how many agreeable
sentiments must a man of sense be capable !
the pleasures of society must to him increase
in an almost incalculable proportion, because
in conversation his faculties can never want
subjects on which they may be amply exercised.
The dearth of conversation, which every body
may have felt in certain company, is always at-
tended with mournful countenances, and every
symptom of ennui. Indeed, without the plea^
surcs of conversation, society is reduced to
meetings of people who assemble to eat and drink,
to show their fine clothes, to weary and hate one
another. The sympathy of bon vivants is, it must
be acknowledged, very lively and sincere towards
each other ; but this can last only during the fes-

* Vernet's Theorie des Sentimens Agreables,

358 Practical Education,

live hour, unless they revive, and prolong, by the
powers of imagination, the memory of the feast.
Some foreign traveller * tells us that " every year
*^ at Naples an officer of the police goes through
*^ the city, attended by a trumpeter^ who proclaims
*^ in all the squares and cross-ways how many
'^ thousand oxen, calves, lambs, hogs, &c. the
" Neapolitans have had the honour of eating in
>^ the course of the year." The people all listen
with the most sympathetic attention to this pro-
clamation, and are immmoderately delighted at
the huge amount.

' ^*'A degree, and scarcely one degree, above the
brute sympathy of good eaters, is that gregarious
propensity which is sometimes honoured with
the name of sociability. The current sympathy,
or appearance of sympathy, which is to be found
amiongst the idle and frivolous in fashionable life,
is wholly unconnected with even the idea of
esteem. It is therefore pernicious to all who
partake of it ; it excites to no great exertions ; it
rewards neither useful nor amiable qualities : on
the contrary, it is to be obtained by vice, rather
than by virtue ; by folly much more readily than
by wisdom. It is the mere follower of fashion
and of dissipation, and it keeps those in humour,
and countenance, who ought to hear the voice

* V. Varieties of Literature, vol. i.

Sympathy and Sensibility. 359

of public reproach, and who might be roused
by the fear of disgrace, or the feelings of shame,
to exertions which should justly entitle them
to the approbation and affections of honourable
friends.

Young people, who are early in life content
with this convivial sympathy, may, in the com-
mon phrase, become very goody pleasant compa*
nions ; but there is little chance that they should
ever become any thing more, and there is great
danger that they may be led into any degree of
folly, extravagance, or vice, to which fashion and
the voice of nambers invite. It sometimes
happens, that men of superior abilities have
such an indiscriminate love of applause and
sympathy, that they reduce themselves to the
standard of all their casual companions, and
vary their objects of ambition with the opinion
of the silly people with whom they chance
to associate. In public life party spirit becomes
the ruling principle of men of this character ; in
private life they are addicted to clubs, and asso-
ciations of all sorts, in which the contagion of
sympathy has a power which the sober influence
of reason seldom ventures to correct. The waste
of talents, and the total loss of principle to
which this indiscriminate love of sympathy
leads, should warn us to guard against its in-
fluence by early education. The gregarious

360 Practical Education,

propensity in childhood should not be indulged
without great precautions : unless their com-
panions are well educated, we can never be
reasonably secure of the conduct or happiness of
oar pupils : from sympathy they catch all the
wishes, tastes, and ideas of those with whom
they associate ; and what is still worse, they
acquire the dangerous habits of resting upon the
support, and of wanting the stimulus of numbers.
It is^ surely, far more prudent to let children
feel a little eJinui from the want of occupation
and of company, than to purchase for them the
juvenile pleasures of society at the expense of
their future happiness.

As young people gradually acquire know-
ledge, they will learn to converse, and when
they have the habits of conversing rationally,
they will not desire companions who can only
chatter. They will prefer the company of friends,
who can sympathize in their occupations, to the
presence of ignorant idlers, who can fill up the
void of ideas with nonsense and noise. Some
people have a notion that the understanding and
the heart are not to be educated at the same time ;
but the very reverse of this is perhaps true :
neither can be brought to any perfection unless
both are cultivated together.

We should not expect premature virtues.
During chjldho©d there occur but few oppor-

Sympathy and Sensibility, 36 1

tunities of exerting the virtues which are recom-
mended in books ; such as humanity, and gene-
rosity.

The humanity of children cannot properly he
said to be exercised upon animals ; they are fre*
quently extremely fond of animals ; but they are
not always equable in their fondness ; they some.*
times treat their favourites with that caprice
which favourites are doomed to experience ; this
caprice degenerates into cruelty^ if it is resented
by the sufferer. We must not depend merely
upon the natural sensations of compassion, as
preservatives against eruejty; these instinctive
feelings are strong amongst uneducated people,
yet these do not restrain them from acts of
cruelty. They take delight, it has been often
observed, in ail tragical, sanguinary spectacles^
because these excite emotion, and relieve them
from the listless state in which their days usually
pass. It is the same with all persons, in all
ranks of life, whose minds are uncultivated.*
Until young people have fixed habits of bene-
volence, and a taste for occupation, perhaps it
is not prudent to trust them with the care or
protection of animals. Even when they are
enthusiastically fond of them, they cannot by
their utmost ingenuity make the animals, so

* Caiji it be true that an English nobleman, in the 18th cen-
tury, won a bet by procuring a man to eat a cat alive ?

362 Practical Education.

happy in a state of captivity as they would
be in a state of hberty. They are apt to
insist upon doing animals good against their will,
and they are often unjust in the defence of their
favourites. A boy of seven years old once
knocked down his sister to prevent her from
squeezing his caterpillar.*

Children should not be taught to confine their
benevolence to those animals which are thought
beautiful ; the fear and disgust which we express
at the sight of certain unfortunate animals, whom
we are pleased to call ugly and shocking, are
observed by children, and these associations lead
to cruelty. If we do not prejudice our pupils
by foolish exclamations^ if they do not from
sympathy catch our absurd antipathies, their
benevolence towards the animal world will not
be illiberally confined to favourite lap-dogs and
singing-birds. From association most people

think that frogs are ugly animals. L , a boy

. between five and six years old, once begged his
mother to come out to look at a beautiful animal
which he had just found ; she was rather sur-
prised to find that this beautiful creature was a
frog. ^

If children never see others torment animals,
they will not think that cruelty can be an amuse-

* See Moore's Edward for the Boy and Larks, an excellent
story for children.

Sympathy and Sensibility. 36j

ment ; but they may be provoked to revenge
the pain which is inflicted upon them ; and
therefore we should take care not to put children
in situations where they are liable to be hurt or
terrified by animals. Could we possibly expect
that Gulliver should love the Brobdignagian
wasp that buzzed round his cake, and prevented
him from eating his breakfast ? Could we ex-
pect that Gulliver should be ever reconciled to
the rat against whom he was obliged to draw
his sword ? Many animals are to children what
the wasp and rat were to Gulliver. Put bodily
fear out of the case, it required all uncle Toby's
benevolence to bear the buzzing of a gnat
while he was eating his dinner. Children,
even when they have no cause to be afraid of
animals, are sometimes in situations to be pro-
voked by them ; and the nice casuist will find it
difficult to do strict justice upon the offended and
the offenders.

October 2, 1796. S , nine years old,

took care of his brother H 's hot-bed for

some time, when H was absent from home.

He was extremely anxious about his charge ;
he took one of his sisters to look at the hot-bed,
showed her a hole where the mice came in, and
expressed great hatred against the whole race.
He the same day asked his mother for a bait for
the mouse-trap. His mother refused to give

364* Practical Education*

him one, telling him that she did not wish he
should Jearn to kill animals. How good-nature

sometimes leads to the opposite feeling ! S *s

love for his brothers cucumbers made him
imagine and compass the death of the mice.
Children should be protected against animals,
which we do not wish that they should hate ;
if cats scratch them and dogs bite them, and
mice devour the fruits of their industry, children
must consider these animals as enemies ; they
cannot love them ; and they may learn the habit
of revenge from being exposed to their insults
and depredations. Pythagoras himself would
have insisted upon his exclusive right to the
vegetables on which he was to subsist, especially
if he had raised them by his own care and indus-
try. Buffon,* notwithstanding all his benevo-
lent philosophy, can scarcely speak with patience
of his enemies the field-mice; who, when he
was trying experiments upon the culture of
forest-trees, tormented him perpetually by their
insatiable love of acorns. " I was terri^ed," says
he, " at the discovery of half a bushel, and often
*' a whole bushel of acorns in each of the holes
" inhabited by these little animals ; they had
<^ collected these acorns for their winter pro-
" vision." The philosopher gave orders imme-

• Mem. de l»Acad. R. for the year 1742, p. f532.
2

Sympathy and Sensibility, 305

diately for the erection of a great number of trap?,
and snares baited with broiled nuts ; in less
than three weeks nearly three hundred field-
mice were killed or taken prisoners. Mankind
are obliged to carry on a defensive war against
the animal world. It is fortunate for us that
there are butchers by profession in the world,
and rat-catchers, and cats, otherwise our habits
of benevolence and sympathy would be put to
severe trials. Children, though they must per-
ceive the necessity for destroying certain animals,
need not be themselves executioners ; they
should not conquer the natural repugnance to
the sight of the struggles of pain, and the con-
vulsions of death ; their aversion to being the
cause of pain should be preserved both by prin-
ciple and habit. Those who have not been
habituated to the bloody form of cruelty, can
never fix their eye upon her without shuddering ;
even those to whom she may have in some .
instances been early familiarised, recoil from her j
appearance in any shape to which they have not h
been accustomed. At one of the magnificent )
shows, with which Pompey entertained the \
Roman people for five days successively, the
populace enjoyed in profusion the death of wild
beasts; no less than five hundred hons were
killed ; but, on the last day, when twenty ele-
phants were put to death, the people, unused

366 Practical Education.

to the sight, and to the lamentable howlings of
these animals, were seized with sudden compas-
sion ; and execrated Pompey himself for being
the author of so much cruelty.

Charity to the poor is often inculcated in
books for children ; but how is this virtue to be
actually brought into practice in childhood ?
Without proper objects of charity are selected
by the parents, children have no opportunities
of discovering them ; they have not sufficient
knowledge of the world to distinguish truth
from falsehood in the complaints of the dis-
tressed ; nor have they sufficiently enlarged
views to discern the best means of doing good
to their fellow-creatures. They may give away
money to the poor, but they do not always fee
the value of what they give : they give coun-
ters : supplied with all the necessaries and luxu-
ries of life, they have no use for money, they
feel no privation, they make no sacrifice in
giving money away, or at least none worthy to
be extolled as heroic. When children grow up,
they learn the value of money, their generosity
will then cost them rather more effort, and yet
can be rewarded only with the same expressions
of gratitude, with the same blessings from the
beggar, or the same applause from the spectator.

Let us put charity out of the question, and
suppose that the generosity of children is dis-

Sympathy and Sensibility. 36?

played in making presents to their companions,
still there are difficulties. These presents are
usually baubles, which at the best can encou-
rage only a frivolous taste. But we must fur-
ther consider, that even generous children are
apt to expect generosity equal to their own
from their companions ; then come tacit or ex-
plicit comparisons of the value or elegance of
their respective gifts ; the difficult rules of ex-
change and barter are to, be learned; and nice
calculations of Tare and Tret are entered into
by the repentant borrowers and lenders. A sen-
timental too often ends in a commercial inter-
course ; and those who begin with the most
munificent dispositions sometimes end with
selfish discontent, low cunning, or disgusting
ostentation. Whoever has carefully attended to
young makers of presents, and makers of bar-
gains, will not think this account of them much
exaggerated.

" Then what is to be done? How are the
^^ social affections to be developed ? How is the
" sensibility of children to be tried ? How is
" the young heart to display its most amiable
*^ feelings?" a sentimental preceptress will im-
patiently inquire.

The amiable feelings of the heart need not be
displayed; they may be sufficiently exercised
without the stimulus either of our eloquence or

3

368 Practical Education.

our applause. In madame de Silleri's account
of the education of the children of the duke of
Orleans there appears rather too much sentimen-
tal artifice and management. When the duchess
of Orleans was ill, the children were instructed
to write '^ charming notes " from day to day,
from hour to hour, to inquire how she did.
Once, when a servant was going from Saint Leu
to Paris, madame de Silleri asked her pupils if
they had any commissions ; the little duke de
Chartres said Yes ; and he gave a message about
a bird-cage, but he did not recollect to write to
his mother, till somebody whispered to him
that he had forgotten it Madame de Silleri
calls this childish forgetfulness a " heinous of-
" fence ; " but was not it very natural that the
boy should think of his bird-cage ? and what
mother would wish that her children should
have it put into their head, to inquire after her
health in the complimentary style? Another
time madame de Silleri is displeased with her
pupils, because they did not show sufficient
sympathy and concern for her when she had a
head-ache or sore throat. The exact number of
messages which, consistently with the strict duties
of friendship, they ought to have sent, are upon
another occasion prescribed.

" I had yesterday afternoon a violent attack of
" the cholic, and you discovered the greatest sen-

Sympathy and Sensibitity, 369

" sibility. By the journal of M. le Brun, I
*^ find it was the duke de Montpensier who
*^ thought this morning of writing to inquire
" how I did. You left me yesterday in a very
** calm state, and there was no reason for ^i>
" anxiety ; but, consistently with the strict I^
" duties of friendship, you ought to have given ^^'
" orders before you went to bed, for inquiries to ,["
*' be made at eight o'clock in the morning to r-^^
" know whether I had any return of my com- n)^
*^ plaint during the night; and you should
" again have sent at ten to learn from myself the
" instant I awoke the exact state of my health.
" Such are the benevolent and tender cares
*^ which a lively and sincere friendship dictates.
*^ You must accustom yourselves to the obser-
" vance of them if you wish to be loved."

Another day madame de Silleri told the duke
de Chartres, that he had a very idiotic appearance,
because, when he went to see his mother, his
attention was taken up by two paroquets which
happened to be in the room. All these reproaches
and documents could not, we should apprehend,
tend to increase the real sensibility and affection
of children. Gratitude is one of the most certain,
but ope of the latest, rewards, which preceptors
and parents should expect from their pupils^
Those who are too impatient to wait for the
gradual developement of the affections, will

wou I. 2 b

3?0 Practical Education,

obtain from their children, instead of warra,

genuine^ enlightened gratitude, nothing but the

expression of cold, constrained, stupid hypocrisy.

During the process .of education a ohiW cannot

perceive its ultimate end ; Jaow caii he judge

wliether the .means employed by his parents are

well adapted to efiect their purposes ? Moments

of restraint and of privation, or, perhaps, of

positive pain, must be endured by children under

the mildest system of education : they must,

therefore, perceive, that their parents are the

immediate cause of some evils to them ; the

remote good is beyond their view. And can we

expect from an infant the systematic resignation

of an optimist? Belief upon trust is very diffe-

j^eiit from that which arises from experience ;

and no «xne, who understands the human heart,

will expect incompatible feelings ; in the mind of

a child the feeling of present pain is incompatible

with gratitude, Mrs. Macaulay mentions a

striking instance of extorted gratitude. A poor

.child, who had been taught to retjurn thanks for

every thing, had a, bitter medicine given to her;

when she had drank it she curtsied, and said,

" Thank you for my good stuff." There was

a mistake in the medicine, a^id the child died the

next morning.

Children who are not sentimentally educated
pfien offcjrfd by their simplicity, and frequently

Sympathy and Sensibility. 371

disgust people of impatient feelings, hy their
apparent indifference to things which ^re ex-
pected to touch their sensibility. Let us be con-
tent with nature, or rather let us never exchange
simplicity for affectation. Nothing hufts young
people more than to be watched continually
about their feelings, to have their countenances
scrutinized, and the degrees of their sensibility
measured by the surveying eye of the unmerciful
spectator. Under the constraint of such examina-
tions they can think of nothing, but that they are
looked at, and feel nothing but shame or appre-
hension : they are afraid to lay their minds open,
lest they should be convicted of some deficiency
of feeling. On the contrary, children who are
not in dread of this sentimental inquisition speak
their minds, the truth, and the whole truth,^
without effort or disguise: they lay open their
hearts, and tell their thoughts as they arise
with simplicity that would not fear to enter even
*' The Palace of Truth." *

A little girl. Ho—- — -, who was not quite
four years old, asked her mother to give her a
plaything: one of her sisters had just before
asked for the same thing. " I cannot give it to
<' you both," said the mother.

* V. LePalaijge de la VIrite. — Madame de Geklis' Verllees
<lu Chateau.

2 B 2

37'i Practical Education,

Ho' No, but I wish you to give it torn e,
and not to E .

Mother. Don't you wish your sister to have
what she wants ?

Ho . Mother, if I say that I don't wish so,

will you give it to me ?

3^ Perhaps this nawetk might have displeased some
scnipulous admirers of politeness, who could not
discover in it symptoms of that independent
simplicity of character, for which the child who
made this speech was distinguished.

" Do you always love me ? " — said a mother
to her son, who was about four years old.
- " Always," said the child, " except when I

am asleep."

Mother. " And why do you not love me when

you are asleep?"

Son, " Because I do not think of you then."

This sensible answer showed that the boy
reflected accurately upon his own feelings, and
a judicious parent must consequently have a
sober certainty of his affection. The thoughtless
caresses of children who are never accustomed to
reason are lavished alike upon strangers and
friends ; and their fondness of to-day may without
any reasonable cause become aversion by to-
morrow.

Children are often asked to tell which of their
friends they love the best, but they are seldom

MC

*f

Sympathy and Sensibility. 373

required to assign any reason for their choice.
It is not prudent to question them frequently
about their own feehngs ; but whenever they
express any decided preference we should en-
deavour to lead, not to drive them to reflect
upon the reasons for their affection. They will
probably at first mention some particular instance
of kindness, which they have lately received
from the person whom they prefer. " I like
" such a person because he mended my top."—
*^ I like such another because he took me out to
" walk with him and let me gather flowers."
By degrees we may teach children to generalize
their ideas, and to perceive that they like people
for being either useful or agreeable.

The desire to return kindness by kindness
arises very early in the mind, and the hope of
conciliating the good will of the powerful beings
by whom they are surrounded, is one of the
first wishes that appears in the minds of in-
telligent and affectionate children. From this
sense of mutual dependarice the first principles
of social intercourse are deduced, and we may
render our pupils either mean sycophants or
useful and honourable members of society, by
the methods which we use to direct their first
eftbrts to please. It should be our object to
convince them, that the exchange of mutual
good offices contributes to happiness, and whilst

374 Practiedl Education.

we donneet the desire to assist others with th6
pei*eeption of the beneficial consequences that
eventually arise to themselves, we may be cer-
tain that children will never become blindly
selfiA, or idly sentimental. We cannot help
admiring the simplicity, strength of mindy and
good sense of a little girl of four years old,
whoi when she was J)ut iMo a stage-coach with
a nurnfeer of strangers, looked round upon them
all, and after a few minutes' silence addressed
them, with the imperfect articulation of infancy,
in the following words :

" If yo.u'11 be good to me, I'll be good to

^' you."

Whilst we we^d writing upon sympathy and
sensibility^ we met with the following apposite
passage :

'' In 1765, I was," says M. de St. Pierre, " at
*^ Dresden, at a J)lafy acted at court ; it was the
*' Pere de Famille. The electoress came in with
" one of h^r daughters, who might be about five
" of six years old. An officer of the Saxon
" guards,' who came with me to the play, whis-
*^ per^, ^ That child will interest you as much
*^ as the play.' As soon as she was seated, she
*^ placed both he^ hands on the front of the box,
" fixed hfer eyes upon the stage, and continued
" with hef mouth 6pen, dll attention to the mo-
" tiofts 6f the actors. It was truly touching to

6

Sympathy and Semlbllity. 375

*^ see their different passions painted on her face
*^ as in a glass. There appeared in her counte-
" nance successively, anxiety, surprise, melan-
" choly, and grief; at length, the interest in-
** creasing in every scene, tears began to flow,
" which soon ran in abundance down her little
" cheeks ; then came agitation, sighs, and loud
" sobs ; at last they were obliged to carry her
" out of the box lest she should choak herself
" with crying. My next neighbour told me,
" that every time that this young princess came
" to a pathetic play, she was obliged to leave the
" house before the catastrophe."

*^ I have seen," continues M. de St. Pierre,
'' instances of sensibility still more touching
*' amongst the children of the common people,
" because the emotion was not here produced
" by any theatrical effect. As I was walking
^^ some years ago in the Pre St. Gervais, at the
*^ beginning of winter, I saw a poor woman lying
** on the ground, busied in weeding a bed of sor-
" rel ; near her was a little girl, of six years old
" at the utmost, standing motionless, and all
" purple with cold. I addressed myself to this
" woman, who appeared to be ill> and I asked
" her what was the matter with her. * Sir,' said
" she, ' for these three months 1 have suffered
'* terribly from the rheumatism, but my illness
" troubles me less than this child; she never will

376 Practical Education.

** leave me ; if I say to her, ' Thou art quite
*^ frozen, go and warm thyself in the house/ she
" answers me, ' Alas ! mamma, if I leave you^
*^ you'll certainly fall ill againi'"

'^ Another time, being at Marly, I went to
" see, in the groves of that magnificent park,
*' that charming group of children who are feed-
" ing with vine-leaves and grapes a goat who
'^ seems to be playing with them. Near this
*^ spot is an open summer-house, where Louis
" XV., on fine days, used sometimes to take
^^ refreshment. As it was showery weather, I
" went to take shelter for a few minutes. I
" found there three children, who were much
'^ more interesting than children of marble.
" They were two little girls, very pretty, and
" very busily employed in picking up all round
** the summer-house dry sticks, which they put
^* into a sort of wallet which was lying upon the
*' king's table, whilst a little, ill-clothed, thin boy
" was devouring a bit of bread in one corner of
** the room. I asked the tallest of the children,
*^ who appeared to be between eight and nine
" years old, what she meant to do with the
" wood which she was gathering together with
*f so much eagerness. She answered, * Sir, you
*^ see that little boy, he is very unhappy. He
*^ has a mother-in-law, who sends him all day
^* Jong to look for wood ; when he does not bring

Sympathy and Sensibility. 377

*^ any home he is beaten ; when he has got any,
" the Swiss who. stands at the entrance of the
" park takes it all away from him, and keeps it
" for himself. The boy is almost starved with
" hunger, and we have given him our breakfast.'
*^ After having said these words, she and her
" companion finished filling the little wallet;
" they packed it upon the boy's shoulders, and
*^ they ran before theirunfortunate friend to see
" that he might pass in safety.'*

We have read these three anecdotes to several
children, and have found that the active friends
of the little gatherer of sticks were the most
admired. It is probable, that amongst children
who have been much praised for expressions of
sensibility, the young lady who wept so bitterly
at the play-house would be preferred ; affection-
ate children will like the little girl who stood
purple with cold beside her sick mother ; but if
they have been well educated, they will pro-
bably express some surprise at her motionless
attitude ; they will ask why she did not try to
help her mother to weed the bed of sorrel.

It requires much skill and delicacy in our con-
duct towards children, to preserve a proper me-
dium between the indulging and the repressing
their sensibility. We are cruel towards them
when we suspect their genuine expressions of
affection ; nothing hurts the temper of a gene-

37^ ' Practical Education.

rous c^bild more than this species of injustice.
Receive his expressions of kindness and grati-
tude with cold reserve, or a look that impHes a
doubt of his truth, and you give him so much
pain, that you not only repress, but destroy his
aifeetionate feehngs. On the contrary, if you
appear touched and delighted by his caresses,
ftom the hope of pleasing, he will be naturally
inclined to repeat such demonstrations of sensi-
bility: this repetition should be gently discou-
raged, lest it should lead to affectation. At the
same time, though we take this precaution, we
should consider, that children are not early sen-
sible, that affectation is either ridiculous or dis-
gusting ; they are not conscious of doing any
thing wrong by repeating what they have once
perceived to be agreeable in their own, or in
the manners of others. They frequently imitate,
without any idea that imitation is displeasing ;
as Locke observes, they only mistake the means
of pleasing : we should rectify this mistake with-
out treating it as a crime.

A little girl of five years old stood beside her
mother, observing the distribution of a dish of
strawberries, the first strawberries of the year;
aftd seeing a number of people busily helping,
and being helped to cream and sugar, said in a
low voice, not meant to attract attention, " I
" like to see people helping one another." Had

sympathy and Sensibility, d^p

th« child, at this instant, been praised for this
natural expression of sympathy, the pleasure of
praise would have been immediately substituted
in her mind, instead of the feeling of benevo-
lence, which was in itself sufficiently agreeable ;
and perhaps from a desire to please, she would>
upon the n^iit favourable occasion, have re-
peafed the same sentiment ; this we should im-
mediately call affectation ; but how could the
child foresee that the repetition of what we for-
merly lifced would be offensive? We should
not first extol sympathy, and then disdain affec-
tation ; our encomiums frequently produce the
faults by which we are disgusted. Sensibility
and sympathy, when they have proper objects,
and full employment, do not look for applause ;
they are sufficiently happy in their own enjoy-
ni^nts. Those who have attempted to teach
children must have observed, that sympathy is
immediately connected with all the imitative
arts ; the nature of this connexion, more espe-
cially in poetry and painting, has been pointed
out with ingenuity and eloquence by those*
whose excelleftce in these arts entitle theit
theories to our prudent attention. We shall not

* ^ir Josliua Reynolds's Discourses. Dr. Darwin's Critical
Intferladts in the Botanic Garden, and his chapter on Sympa-
thy and Imitation in Zoofiomia.

380 Practical Education,

attempt to repeat ; we refer to their observations.
Sufficient occupation for sympathy may be found
by cultivating the talents of young people.

Without repeating here what has been said in
many other places, it may be necessary to re-
mind all who are concerned in female educa-
tion, that peculiar caution is necessary to ma-
nage female sensibility ; to make what is called
the heart a source of permanent pleasure, we
must cultivate the reasoning powers at the same
time that we repress the enthusiasm o{ fine feel-
ing. Women, from their situation and duties
in society, are called upon rather for the daily
exercise of quiet domestic virtues, than for
those splendid acts of generosity, or those exag-
gerated expressions of tenderness, which are the
characteristics of heroines in romance. Senti-
mental authors paint with enchanting colours all
the graces and all the virtues in happy union.
Afterwards, from the natural influence of asso-
ciation, we expect in real life to meet with vir-
tue when we see grace, and we are disappointed,
almost disgusted, when we find virtue un-
adorned. This false association has a double
effect upon the conduct of women ; it prepares
them to be pleased, and it excites them to en-
deavour to please by adventitious charms, rather
than by those qualities which merit esteem.
Women, who have been much addicted to com-

Sympathy and Sensibility ^ 381

mon novel-reading, are always acting in imita-
tion of some Jemima or Almeria who never
existed, and they perpetually mistake plain Wil-
liam and Thomas for " My Beverly T They
have another peculiar misfortune; they require
continual great emotions to keep them in tole-
rable humour with themselves ; they must have
tears in their eyes, or they are apprehensive that
their hearts are growing hard. They have ac-
customed themselves to such violent stimulus,
that they cannot endure the languor to which
they are subject in the intervals of delirium.
Pink appears pale to the eye that is used to
scarlet, and common food is insipid to the taste
which has been vitiated by the high seasonings
of art.

A celebrated French actress, in the wane of
her charms, and who, for that reason, began to
feel weary of the world, exclaimed, whilst she
was recounting what she had suffered from a
faithless lover, " Ah, c'etoit le bon temps,
" j'etois bien malheureuse!"*

The happy age in which women can, with
any grace or effect, be romantically wretched,
is, even with the beautiful, but a short season
of felicity. The sentimental sorrows of any
female mourner, of more than thirty years stand-

* D*Alembert.

3^ PiWfAeal Edms^m.

mgy command but Uttle s§^ippathy, and less «d-
«ikatioo ; and what other coiisolations ane suited
•to sentifloental sorrows ?

Women who cultivate tlieir reasoning powers,
and who acquii*e tastes for science and literature,
find sufficient variety in life, and dg not require
the stimulus of dissipation or 4>f romafice. Tlieir
sympathy and sensibility are engrossed by pro-
per objects, and connected with habits of useful
exertion; they usually feel the afection which
others profess, and actually enjoy the happiness
whichothers describe.

Vamty^ Pride, mid Ambition. 383

CHAPTER XL

On Vanity, Pride, and Ambition.

Vy E shall not weary the reader by any com-
mon-place declamation upon these moral topics.
No great subtlety of distinction is requisite to
mark the differences betwixt Vanity and Pride,
since those differences have bec^ pointed out
by every moralist, who has hoped to please man-
kind by an accurate delineation of the failings of
human nature. Whatever distinctions ex'ist, or
may be supposed to exist, between the charac-
ters in which pride or vanity predominates, it
w^ill readily be allowed, that there is one thing
in which they both agree; they both receive
;pleasure from the approbation of others, and
froi^ their own. Wc are disgusted with the
vain naan, when he intemperately indulges in
praise of himself^ however justly he may be en-
,titled to that praise, because he offends against
those manners which we have been accustomed
tx> think polite, and he claims from us a greater

384 Practical Education.

portion of sympathy than we can afford to give
him. We are not, however, pleased by the neg-
ligence with which the proud man treats us ;
we do not Hke to see that he can exist in inde-
pendent happiness, satisfied with a cool, internal
sense of his own merits ; he loses our sympathy,
because he does not appear to value it.

If we could give our pupils exactly the cha-
racter we wish, what degrees of vanity and pride
should we desire them to have, and how should
we regulate these passions ? Should we not de-
sire, that their ambition to excel might be suffi-
cient to produce the greatest possible exertions,
directed to the best possible objects ; that their
opinion of themselves should be strictly just,
and should never be expressed in such a manner
as to offend against propriety, nor so as to forfeit
the sympathy of mankind. As to the degree of
pleasure which they should feel from their secret
reflexions upon their own meritorious conduct,
we should certainly desire this to be as lasting
and as exquisite as possible. A considerable
portion of the happiness of life arises from the
sense of self-approbation ; we should therefore
secure this gratification in its utmost perfection.
We must observe, that, however independent
the proud man imagines himself to be of the
opinions of all round him, he must form his judg-
ment of his own merits from some standard of

_x

I

Vanity, Pride, and Ambition, 385

comparison, by some laws drawn from observa-
tion of what mankind in general, or those whom
he particularly esteems, think wise or amiable.
He must begin then in the same manner as the
vain man, whom he despises, by collecting the
suffrages of others ; if he selects with perfect
wisdom the opinions which are most just, he
forms his character upon excellent principles,
and the more steadily he abides by his first
views, the more he commands and obtains re-
spect. But if unfortunately he makes a mistake
at first, his obstinacy in error is not to be easily
corrected ; for he is not affected by the general
voice of disapprobation, nor by the partial loss
of the common pleasures of sympathy. The vain
man, on the contrary, is in danger, let him form
his first notions of right and wrong ever so justly,
of changing them when he happens to be in so-
ciety with any persons who do not agree with
him in their moral opinions, or who refuse him
that applause which supports his own feeble self-
approbation. We must, in education, endeavour
to guard against these opposite dangers ; we
must enlighten the understanding to give our
pupils the power of forming their rules of con-
duct rightly, and we must give them sufficient
strength of mind to abi(}e by the principles
which they have formed- When we first praise
children, we must be careful to associate pka^
VOL. I. 2 c

386 Practical Education.

sure with those things which are really deserv-
ing of approbation. If we praise them for
beauty, or for any happy expressions which en-
tertain us, but which entertain us merely as the
sprightly nonsense of childhood, we create va-
nity in the minds of our pupils ; we give them
false ideas of merit, and, if we excite them to
exertions, they are not exertions directed to any
valuable objects. Praise is a strong stimulus to
industry, if it be properly managed ; but if we
give it in too large and lavish quantities early in
life, we shall soon find that it loses its effect,
and that the patient languishes for want of the
excitation which custom has rendered almost
essential to his existence. We say the patiejit,
for this mental languor may be considered en-
tirely as a disease. For its cure, see the second
volume of Zoonomia, under the article Vanity.
i.\ Children, who are habituated to the daily and
hourly food of praise, continually require this
sustenance unless they are attended to ; but we
may gradually break bad habits. It is said that
some animals can supply themselves at a single
draught with what will quench their thirst for
many days. The human animal may, perhaps,
by education, be taught similar foresight and ab-
stinence in the management of his thirst for
flattery. Young people, who live with persons
that seldom bestow praise, do not expect that

Vanity^ Pride, and Ambition, 387

stimulus, and they are content if they discover
by certain signs either in the countenance, man-^
ner, or tone of voice^ of those whom they wish
to please, that they are tolerably well satisfied.
It is of little consequence by what language ap-
probation be conveyed, whether by words, or
looks, or by that silence which speaks with so
much eloquence ; but it is of great importance
that our pupils should set a high value upon the
expressions of our approbation. They will
value it in proportion to their esteem and their
affection for us ; we include in the w^ord esteem
a belief in our justice, and in our discernment.
Expressions of affection, associated with praise,
not only increase the pleasure, but they alter
^e nature of that pleasure ; and if they gratify
vanity, they at the same time excite some of
the best feelings of the heart. The selfishness
of vanity is corrected by this association; and
tfae two pleasures of sympathy and self-compla^
cency should never, when we can avoid it, be
separated.

Children, who are well educated, and who
have acquired an habitual desire for the appro-
bation of their friends, may continue absolutely
indifferent to the praise of strangers, or of com^
mon acquaintance ; nor is it probable that this
indifference should suddenly be conquered, ber
2 c 2

36S Practical Education.

causie the greatest part of the pleasure of praise
in their mind depends upon the esteem and af*
fiBCtion which they feel for the persons by whom
il is bestowed. Instead of desiring that our pu-
pils should entirely repress, in the company of
their own family, the pleasure which they feel
from the praise that is given to them by their
friends, we should rather indulge them in
this natural expansion of mind ; we should
rather permit their youthful vanity to display
itself openly to those whom they must love
tJad esteem, than drive them, by unreasonable
severity, and a cold refusal of sympathy, into
the society of less rigid observers. Those
who have an aversion to vanity will not ea-
sily bear with its intemperance of tongue ;
but they sho«ld consider, that much of what
disgusts them is •owing to the simplicity of
childhood, which must be allowed time to lefam
that respect for the feelings of others that
teaches us to restrain our own ; but we must
not be in haste to restrain, lest we teach hypo-
crisy, instead of strength of mind, or real hu-
mility. If we expect that children should ex-
cel, and should not know that they excel, we
expect impossibilities ; we expect at the same
time intelligence and stupidity. If we desire
that tbey should be excited by praise^ and that

Vanity^ Pride, and Ambition, 389

at the same time they should feel no pleasure in
the applause which they have earned, we desire
things that are incompatible. If we encourage
children to be frank and sincere, and yet, at the
same time, reprove them whenever they natu-
rally express their opinions of themselves or
the pleasurable feelings of self-approbation, we
shall counteract our own wishes. Instead of
hastily blaming children for the sincere and sim-
ple expression of their self-complacency, or
of their desire for the approbation of others, we
should gradually point out to them that those
who refrain from that display of their own per-
fections which we call vanity, in fact are vfe\\
repaid for the constraint which they put upon
themselves by the superior degree of respect
and sympathy which they obtain ; that vain
people effectually counteract their own wishes,
and meet with contempt, instead of admiration.
By appealing constantly when we praise to the
judgment of the pupils themselves, we shall
teach them the habit of rejudging flattery, and
substitute, by insensible degrees, patient, steady
confidence in themselves, for the wavering
weak impatience of vanity. In proportion as
any one's confidence in himself increases, his
anxiety for the applause of others diminishes :
people are very seldom vain of any accomplish-
ments in which they obviously excel, but they

390 M^\%Practical Education. / \

frequently continue to be vain of those which
are doubtful. Where mankind have not con-
firmed their own judgment, they are restless,
and continually aim either at convincing others,
or themselves, that they are in the right. Ho-
garth, who invented a new and original manner
of satirizing the follies of mankind, was not
vain of this talent, but was extremely vain
of his historical paintings, which, it is said,
were indifferent performances. Men of acknow«
ledged literary talents are seldom fond of ama-
teurs ; but, if they are but half satisfied with
their own superiority, they collect the tribute of
applause with avidity, and without discrimina-
tion or delicacy. Voltaire has been reproached
Yiiih treating strangers rudely VKho went to Fer-
ney to see and admire a philosopher as a prodigy.
Voltaire valued his time more than he did this
vulgar admiration ; his visitors, whose under-
standing had not gone through exactly the same
process, who had not probably been satisfied
with public applause, and who set, perhaps, a
considerable value upon their own praise, could
not comprehend this appearance of indifference
to adniiration in Voltaire, especially when it was
well known that he was not insensible of fame.
He was at an advanced age exquisitely anxious
about the fate of one of his tragedies, and a
public corQuation at the theatre at Paris h^d

Vanity y Pride, and Ambition, 39 1

power to inebriate him at eighty-four. Those
who have exhausted the stimulus of wine, may-
yet be intoxicated by opium. The voice of
numbers appears to be sometimes necessary to
give delight to those who have been fatigued
with the praise of individuals : but this taste for
acclamation is extremely dangerous. A multi-
tude of good judges seldom meet together.

By a slight diiference in their manner of rea-
soning, two men of abilities who set out with
the same desire for fame, may acquire either
pride, or vanity ; the one may value the num--
her, the other may^ appreciate the judgment, of
his admirers. There is something not only
more wise, but more elevated, in this latter spe-,
cies of select triumph , the noise is not so great ;*
the music is better. " If I listened to the mu-
" sic of praise," says an historian, who obvi-'
ously was not insensible to its charms, " I was'
'^ more seriously satisfied with the approbation
'^ of my judges. The candour of Dr. Robert-
*^ son embraced his disciple. A letter from Mr.*
^^ Hume overpaid the labours of ten years."*
Surely no one can be displeased with this last

* Gibbon, Memoirs of his Life and Writings, p. 148,
Perhaps Gibbon had this excellent line of Mrs. Barbauld*s in -
his memory,

" And pay a life of hardship with a line **

3Q1 Practical Education*

generous expression of enthusiasm ; we are not
so well satisfied with BufFon, when he ostenta-
tiously displays the epistles of a prince and an
empress.*

Perhaps by pointing out at proper opportuni-
ties the difference in our feelings with respect to
vulgar and refined vanity^ we might make a
useful impression upon those, who have yet
their habits to form. The conversion of vanity
into pride is not so difficult a process as those,
who have not analysed both, might from the
striking difference of their appearance itna-
gine. By the opposite tendencies of education,
opposite characters from the same original dis*
positions are produced. Cicero, had he been
early taught to despise the applause of the
inuliitude, would have turned away like the
pfoud philosoper, who asked his friends what
absurdity he had uttered when he heard the
populace loud in acclamations of his speech ;
and the cynic, whose vanity was seen through
the holes in his cloak, rpight perhaps, by a
slight difference in his education, have been
rendered ambitious of the Macedonian's purple.

In attempting to convert vanity into pride, we
must begin by exercising the vain patient in forr
bearance of present pleasure ; it is not enough

* See P6lti«*s State of Paris m tlie years 1795 and 1796.

Vanity, Pride^ and Ambition. 393

to convince his understanding, that the advan-
tages of proud humihty are great; he maybe
perfectly sensible of this, and may yet have so
little command over himself, that his loquacious
vanity may get the better, from hour to hour, of
his better judgment. Habits are not to be in-
stantaneously conquered by reason ; if we do
not keep this fact in our remembrance, we shall
be frequently disappointed in education ; and
we shall, perhaps, end by thinking that reason
can do nothing, if we begin by thinking that
she can do every thing. We must not expect,
that a vain child should suddenly break and for-
get all his best associations ; but we may, by a
little early attention, prevent much of the trou-
ble of curing the disease of vanity, or by skilful
management, we may convert it into pride. ^,
When children first begin to learn accom-
plishments, or to apply themselves to literature,
those who instruct are apt to encourage them
with too large a portion of praise ; the smallest
quantity of stimulus that can produce the exer-
tion we desire should be used ; if we use more,
we waste our power, and injure our pupil. As
soon as habit has made any exertion familiar,
and consequently easy, we may withdraw the
original excitation, and the exertion will still
continue. In learning, for instance, a new laa-

394 Practical Education,

guage at first, while the pupil is in the midst
of the difficulties of regular and irregular verbs,
and when, in translation, a dictionary is wanted
at every moment, the occupation itself cannot
be very agreeable ; but we are excited- by the
hope that our labour will every day diminish,
and that we shall at last enjoy the entertain-
ment of reading useful and agreeable books.
Children, who have not learnt by experience
the pleasures of literature, cannot feel this hope
as strongly as we do, we therefore excite them
by praise ; but by degrees they begin to feel
the pleasure of success and occupation ; when
these are felt, we may, and ought to withdraw
the unnecessary excitements of praise. If we
continue it, we mislead the child's mind, and
v^hilst we deprive him of his natural reward,
we give him a factitious taste. When any moral
habit is to be acquired, or when we wish that
our pupil should cure himself of any fault, we
must employ at first strong excitement, and
reward with warmth and eloquence of appro-
bation ; when the fault is conquered, when the
virtue is acquired, the extraordinary excitement
should be withdrawn, and this should not be
done with an air of mystery and artifice ; the
child should know all that we do, and why we
do it ; the sooner he learns how his own mind is

Vanity^ Pride^ and Ambition. 395

managed the better, the sooner he will assist in
his own education.

Every body must have observed, that languor
of mind succeeds to the intoxication of vanity ;
if we can avoid the intoxication, we shall avoid
the languor. Common sayings often imply
those sensible observations which philosophers,
when they theorize, only express in other words.
We frequently hear it said to a child, " Praise
" spoils you ; my praise did you harm ; you can't
" bear praise well ; you grow conceited ; you
*^ become idle ; you are good for nothing, be-
" cause you have been too much flattered." All
these expressions show, that the consequences of
over stimulating the mind by praise have been
vaguely taken notice of in education ; but no
general rules have been deduced from these
observations. With children of different habits
and temperaments the same degree of excite-
ment acts differently, so that it is scarcely possi-
ble to fix upon any positive quantity fit for all
dispositions ; the quantity must be relative ; but
we may, perhaps, fix upon a criterion by which,
in most cases, the proportion may be ascertained.
The golden rule * which an eminent physician
has given to the medical world for ascertaining
the necessary and useful quantity of stimulus

* See Zoonomia, vol. i. p. 99.

396 Practical Educatioru

for weak and feverish patients, may, with advan-
tage, be applied in education. Whenever
praise produces the intoxication of vanity, it is
hurtful ; whenever the appearances of vanity
diminish in consequence of praise, we may be
satisfied that it does good ; that it increases the
pupil's confidence in himself, and his strength of
mind. We repeat, that persons who have con-
fidence in themselves may be proud, but are
never vain of those qualities of which they are
in certain possession ; that vanity cannot support
herself without the concurring flattery of others ;
pride is satisfied with his own approbation. In
the education of children who are more inclined
to pride than to vanity, we must present large
objects to the understanding, and large motives
must be used to excite voluntary exertion. If
the understanding of proud people be not early
cultivated, they frequently fix upon some false
ideas of honour or dignity, to which they are
resolute martyrs through life. Thus the high-
born Spaniards, if we may be allowed to reason
from the imperfect history of national character,
who associate the ideas of dignity and indolence,
would rather submit to the evils of poverty,
than to the imaginary disgrace of working for
their bread. Volney, and the baron de Tott,
give us some curious instances of the pride of
the Turks, which prevents them from being

Vanity y Pride, and Ambit io7i. SQ7

taught any useful arts by foreigners. To show
how early false associations are formed and
supported by pride, we need but recur to the
anecdote of the child mentioned by de Tott,*
who bought a pretty toy as a present for a little
Turkish friend, but the child was too proud to
seem pleased with the toy ; the child's grand-
father came into the room, saw, and was de-
lighted with the toy; sat down on the carpet,
and played with it till he broke it. We like the
second childhood of the grandfather better than
the premature old age of the grandson.

The self-command which the fear of disgrace
insures, can produce either great virtues or great
vices. Revenge and generosity are, it is said,
to be found in their highest state amongst
nations and individuals characterized by pride.
The early objects which are associated with the
idea of honour in the mind are of great conse-
quence; but it is of yet more consequence to
teach proud minds early to bend to the power
of reason, or rather to glory in being governed
by reason. They should be instructed, that the
only possible means of maintaining their opinions
amongst persons of sense is to support them by
unanswerable arguments. They should be tauglit
that, to secure respect, they jcnust deserve it ;

* V. X)e Tott's Memoirs, p. 138, a note.

SpS Practical Education.

and their self-denial, or self-command, should
never obtain that tacit admiration which they
mbst value, except where it is exerted for useful
and rational purposes. The constant custom of
appealing, in the last resort, to their own judg-
ment, which distinguishes the proud from the
vain, makes it peculiarly necessary that the judg-
ment, to which so much is trusted, should be
highly cultivated. A vain man may be tolera-
bly well conducted in life by a sensible friend ;
a proud man ought to be able to conduct him-
self perfectly well, because he will not accept
of any assistance. It seems that some proud
people confine their benevolent virtues within a
smaller sphere than others ; they value only their
own relations, their friends, their country, or
whatever is connected with themselves. This
species of pride may be corrected by the same
means which are used to increase sympathy.
Those, who either from temperament, example,
or accidental circumstances, have acquired the
habit of repressing and commanding their emo-
tions, must be carefully distinguished from the
selfish and insensible. In the present times,
when the affectation of sensibility is to be dread-
ed, we should rather encourage that species of
pride which disdains to display the affections
of the heart. ^^ You Romans triumph over
" vour tears, and call it virtue ! I triumph in

Vanity, Pride^ and Ambition. sgg

-'^ my tears," says Caractacus : his tears were
respectable, but in general the Roman triumph
would command the most sympathy.

Some people attribute to pride all expressions
of confidence in one's self: these may be offen-
sive to common society, but they are sometimes
powerful over the human mind ; and, where
they are genuine, mark somewhat superior in
character. Much of the effect of lord Chat-
ham's eloquence, much of his transcendent in-
fluence in public, must be attributed to the
confidence which he showed in his own supe-
riority. " I trample upon impossibilities," was
an exclamation which no inferior mind would
dare to make. Would the House of Commons
have permitted any one but Lord Chatham to
have answered an oration by " Tell me, gentle
" shepherd, where ? " The danger of failing,
the hazard that he runs of becoming ridiculous
who verges upon the moral sublime, is taken
into our account when we judge of the action,
and we pay involuntary tribute to courage and
success ; but how miserable is the fate of the
man who mistakes his own powers, and upon
trial is unable to support his assumed superi-
ority ; mankind revenge themselves without
mercy upon his ridiculous pride, eager to teach
him the difference between insolence and mag-
nanimity. Young people inclined to over-rate

400 ^^^'^"^ Practical Education,

their own talents, or to undervalue the abilities
of others, should frequently have instances given
to them from real life of thje mortifications and
disgrace to which imprudent boasters expose
themselves. Where they are able to demon-
strate their own abilities, they run no risk in
speaking with decent confidence ; but where
their success depends, in any degree, either
upon their fortune, or opinion, they should never
run the hazard of presumption. Modesty pre-
]x>ssesses mankind in favour of its possessor, and
has the advantage of being both graceful and
safe ; this was perfectly understood by the crafty
Ulysses, who neither raised his eyes, nor stretch-
ed his sceptred hand, " when he first rose to
" speak.'* We do not, however, recommend
this artificial modesty ; its trick is soon disco-
vered, and its sameness of dissimulation pre-
'iently disgusts. Prudence should prevent young
people from hazardous boasting ; and good nature
and good sense, which constitute real politeness,
will restrain them from obtruding their merits
lo the mortification of their companions: but
we do not expect from them total ignorance of
their own comparative merit. The affectation
^of hutniiity, when carried to the extreme, to
which all affectation is hable to be carried, ap-
pears full as ridiculous as troublesome, and
oifensive as any of the graces of vanity, or the

4

Vanity i Pride, and Ambition. 401

airs of pride. Young people are cured of pre-
sumption by mixing with society, but they are
not so easily cured of any species of affectation.

As the fair sex is more liable to the latter
failing than to the former, we have endeavoured
in the chapter on Female Accomplishments to
point out, that the enlargement of understand-
ing in the fair sex, which must result from their
increasing knowledge, will necessarily correct the
feminine foibles of vanity and affectation.

Strong, prophetic, eloquent praise, like that
which the great lord Chatham bestowed on his
son, would rather inspire in a generous soul
noble emulation, than paltry vanity. " On this
^* boy," said he, laying his hand upon his son's
head, " descends my mantle, with the double
*^ portion of my spirit ! " Philip's praise of his
son Alexander, when the boy rode the unma-
nageable horse,^ is another instance of the kind
of praise capable of exciting ambition.

As to ambition, we must decide what spe-
cies of ambition we mean before we can deter-
mine whether it ought to be encouraged or re-^
pressed ; whether it should be classed amongst
virtues or vices ; that is to say, whether it adds
to the happiness or the misery of human crea-
tures. " The inordinate desire of fame," which

* V. Plutarch.
VOL. i. 2d

402 Practical Education.

often destroys the lives of millions when it is
connected with ideas of military enthusiasm, is
justly classed amongst the " diseases of ^volition ;"
for its description and cure we refer to Zoono-
mia, vol. ii. Achilles will there appear to his
admirers, perhaps, in a new light.

The ambition to rise in the world usually im-
plies a mean, sordid desire of riches, or what
are called honours, to be obtained by the com-
mon arts of political intrigue, by cabal to win
popular favour, or by address to conciliate the
patronage of the great. The experience of those
who have been governed during their lives by
this passion^ if passion it may be called, does
not show that it can confer much happiness ei-
ther in the pursuit, or attainment of its objects.
See Bubb Doddingtons Diary, a most useful
book, a journal of the petty anxieties, and con-
stant dependence, to which an ambitious cour-
tier is necessarily subjected. See also Mira-
beau's " Secret History of the Court of Ber^
" lin" for a picture of a man of great abilities
degraded by the same species of low unprinci-
pled competition. We may find, in these books
it is to be hoped, examples which will strike
young and generous minds, and which may in-
spire them with contempt for the objects and
the means of vulgar ambition. There is a more
noble ambition, by which the enthusiaitic youth^

Vanity, Pride^ and Ambition* 403

perfect in the theory of all the virtues^ and
warm with yet unextinguished benevolence^ is
apt to be seized ; his heart beats with the hope
of immortalizing himself by noble actions ; he
forms extensive plans for the improvement and
the happiness of his fellow-creatures; he feels
the want of power to carry these into effect ;
power becomes the object of his wishes* In
the pursuit of this object, how are his feeling^
changed ? Mr. Neckar, in the preface to h's
work on French finance^* paints, with much
eloquence, and with an appearance of perfect
truth, the feelings of a man of virtue and ge-
nius, before and after the attainment of politi-
cal power. The moment when a minister
takes possession of his place, surrounded by
crowds and congratulations, is well described ;
and the succeeding moment, when clerks with
immense portfolios enter, is a striking contrast.
Examples from romance can never have such a
powerful effect upon the mind as those which
are taken from real hfe ; but in proportion to
the just and lively representation of situations,
and passions resembling reality, fictions may
convey useful, moral lessons. In the Cyropsedii

* Neckaf de PA4«iinistration des Finances de la Fran(jc>
vol. i. p. 98.

2 D 2 '

404 ' Practical Education.

there is an admirable description of the day
spent by the victorious Cyrus giving audience
to the unmanageable multitude, after the taking
of Babylon had accomplished the fulness of his
ambition.^

m It has been observed, that these examples of
the insufficiency of ambition seldom make any
lasting impression upon the minds of the ambi-
tious. This may arise from two causes ; from the
reasoning faculties not having been sufficiently
cultivated, or from the habits of ambition being
formed before proper examples are presented to
the judgment for comparison. Some ambitious
people, when they reason coolly, acknowledge
and feel the folly of their pursuits, but still from
the force of habit they act immediately in obe-
dience to the motives which they condemn:
others, who have never been accustomed to rea-
son firmly, believe themselves to be in the right
in the choice of their objects ; and they cannot
comprehend the arguments which are used by
those who have not the same way of thinking as
themselves. If we fairly place facts before young
people, who have been habituated to reason, and
who have not yet been inspired with the pas-
sion, or enslaved by the habits of vulgar ambi-

* Cyropaedia, vol. ii. p. S03.

Vanity, Pride, aad Ambition. 405

tion, it is probable that they will not be easily
effaced from the memory, and that they will in-
fluence the conduct through life.

It sometimes happens to men of a sound un-
derstanding, and a philosophic turn of mind,
that their ambition decreases with their expe-
rience. They begin perhaps with some ardour
an ambitious pursuit, but by degrees they find
the pleasure of the occupation sufficient without
the fame, which was their original object. This
is the same process which we have observed in
the minds of children with respect to the plea-
sures of literature^ and the taste for sugar-plums.

Happy the child who can be taught to im-
prove himself without the stimulus of sweet-
meats! Happy the man who can preserve acti-
vity without the excitements of ambition !

c

Practical Education.

CHAPTER XIL

^ Booh.

The first books which are now usually put
into the hands of a child, are Mrs. Barbauld's
I^essons ; they are by far the best books of the
kind that have ever appeared ; those only who
know the difficulty, and the importance of such
compositions in education, can sincerely rejoice,
that the admirable talents of such a writer have
been employed in such a work. We shall not
apologize for offering a few remarks on some pas-
gages in the»e little books, because we are con^
▼inced that we shall not offend.

Lessons for children from three to four years
old should, we think, have been lessons for chil-
dren from ftDur to five years old ; few read, or
ought to read, before that age,

" Charles shall have a pretty new lesson."
In this sentence the words pretty and new are
associated, but they represent ideas which ought
to be kej)t separate in the mind of a child. The

4

Books. 407

love of novelty is cherished in the minds of children
by the common expressions that we use to engage
them to do what we desire. " You shall have a
" new whip, a new hat," are improper modes of
expression to a child. We have seen a boy who
had literally twenty new whips in one year ; and
we were present when his father, to comfort him
when he was in pain, went out to buy him a nezo
whip, though he had two or three scattered
about the room.

The description, in the first part of Mrs. Bar-
bauld's Lessons, of the naughty boy who tor-'
mented the robin, and who was afterwards sup-
posed to be eaten by bears, is more objection-
able than any in the book : the idea of killing
is in itself very complex ; and, if explained,
serves only to excite terror ; and how can a
child be made to comprehend why a cat should
catch mice, and not kill birds ? or why should
this species of honesty be expected from an ani-
mal of prey ?

" I want my dinner."

Does Charles take it for granted, that what he
eats is his own, and that he must have his din-
ner ? These and similar expressions are words
of course ; but young children should not be
allowed to use them : if they are permitted to
assume the tone of command, the feelings of

408 Practical Education*

impatience atid ill-temper quickly follow, and
children become the little tyrants of a family.
Property is a word of which young people have
general ideas, and they may with very little
trouble be prevented from claiming things to
which they have no right. Mrs. Barbauld has
judiciously chosen to introduce a little boy's
daily history in these books ; all children are
extremely interested for Charles, and they are
very apt to expect that every thing which hap-
pens to him is to happen to them ; they believe
that every thing he does is right, therefore hii
biographer should, in another edition, revise any
of his expressions which may mislead the future
tribe of his little imitators. All the passages
which might have been advantageously omitted
in these excellent little books, have been care--
J^lly obliterated before they were put into the
hands of children, by a mother who knew the
danger of early false associations.
" Little boys don't eat butter."
^' Nobody wears a hat In the house."
This is a very common method of speaking,
but it certainly is not proper towards children.
Affirmative sentences should always express
real facts. Charles must know that some little
boys do eat butter ; and that some people wear
their hats in their house. This mode of ex-

Books. 409

pression, " Nobody does that ! " Every body
*' does this!" lays the foundation for prejudice
in the mind. This is the language of fashion,
which, more than conscience, makes cowards of
us all.

*^ I want some wine."

Would it not be better to tell Charles in reply
to this speech, that wine is not good for him,
than to say, ** Wine for little boys! I never
^^ heard of such a thing ! " If Charles were to
be ill, and it should be necessary to give him
wine, or were he to see another child drink it,
be would lose confidence in what was said to
him. We should be careful of our words, if we
expect our pupils to have confidence in tis ; and
if they have not, we need not attempt to educate
them.

" The moon shines at night when the sun is
" gone to bed."

When the sun is out of sight, would be more
correct, though not so pleasing perhaps to the
young reader. It is very proper to teach a child,
that when the sun disappears, when the sun i«
below the horizon, it is the time when most ani«
mals go to rest ; but we should not do this by
giving so false an idea as that the sun is gone to
bed. Every thing relative to the system of the
universe is above the comprehension of a child ;
we should, therefore, be careful to prevent hh

410 Practical Education.

forming erroneous opinions. We should wait
for a riper period of his understanding before we
attempt positive instruction upon abstract sub-
jects.

The enumeration of the months in the year^
the days in the week, of metals, &c. are excel-
lent lessons for a child who is just beginning to
learn to read. The classification of animals into
quadrupeds, bipeds, &c. is another useful speci-
men of the manner in which children should be
taught to generalize their ideas. The pathetic
description of the poor timid hare running from
the hunters, will leave an impression upon the
young and humane heart, which may perhaps
prevent much cruelty. The poetic beauty and
eloquent simplicity of many of Mrs. Barbauld's
Lessons cultivate the imagination of children,
and their taste, in the best possible manner.

The description of the white swan, with her
long arched neck, " winning her easy way
" through the waters," is beautiful ; so is that
of the nightingale, singing upon her lone bush
by moonlight. Poetic descriptions of real ob-
jects are well suited to children ; apostrophe
and personification they understand, but all al-
legoric poetry is difficult to manage for them,
because they mistake the poetic attributes for
reality, and they acquire false and confused
ideas. With regret children close Mrs. Barr

Booh. 411

bauld's little books, and parents become yet
more sensible of their value, when they perceive
that none can be found immediately to supply
their place, or to continue the course of agree-
able ideas which they have raised in the young
pupil's imagination.

" Evenings at Home" do not immediately
join to Lessons for Children from three to four
years old ; and we know not where to find any
books to fill the interval properly. The popu-
lar character of any book is easily learned, and
its general merit easily ascertained ; this may
satisfy careless, indolent tutors, but a more mi-
nute investigation is necessary to parents who
are anxious for the happiness of their family, or
desirous to improve the art of education. Such
parents will feel it to be their duty to look over
every page of a book before it is trusted to their
children ; it is an arduous task, but none can be
too arduous for the enlightened energy of pa-
rental affection. We are acquainted with the
mother of a family, who has never trusted any
book to her children, without having first ex-
amined it herself with the most scrupulous at-
tention ; her care has been repaid with that suc-
cess in education, which such care can alone en-
wire. We have several books before us marked
by her pencil, and volumes, which having un*
dergone some necessary operations by her scis-

4 1 2 Practicaf^ Education,

sars, would, in their mutilated state, shock the
sensibility of a nice librarian. But shall the
education of a family be sacrificed to the beauty
of a page, or even ,to the binding of a book ?
Few books can safely be given to children with-
out the previous use of the pen, the pencil, and
the scissars. In the books which we have be-
fore us, in their corrected state we see some-
times a few words blotted out, sometimes half
a page, sometimes many pages are cut out. In
turning over the leaves of '^ The Children's
^' Friend," we perceive, that the ages at which
the stories should be read have been marked;
and we see that different stories have been
marked with the initials of different names by
this cautious mother, who considered the tem-
per and habits of her children, as well as their
ages*

As far as these notes refer peculiarly to her
own family, they cannot be of use to the public;
but the principles which governed a judicious
parent in her selection, must be capable of uni-
versal application, and we shall, therefore, en-
deavour to explain them.

It may be laid down as a first principle, that
we should preserve children from the knowledge
of any vice, or any folly, of which the idea has
never yet entered their mipds, and which they
are not necessarily disposed to learn by early

Books. 413

example. Children who have never lived with
servants, who have never associated with ill-edu-
cated companions of their own age, and who in
their own family have heard nothing but good
conversation, and seen none but good examples,
will in their language, their manners, and their
whole disposition, be not pnly free from many
of the faults common amongst children, but
they will absolutely have no idea that there are
such faults. The language of children, who
have heard no language but what is good, must
be correct. On the contrary, those who hear a
mixture of low and high vulgarity before their
own habits are fixed, must, whenever they
speak, continually blunder ; they have no rule
to guide their judgment in their selection from
the variety of dialects which they hear; pro-
bably they may often be reproved for their
mistakes, but these reproofs will be of no avail,
whilst the pupils continue to be puzzled be»
tween the example of the nursery and of the
drawing-room. It will cost much time and
pains to correct these defects, which might
have been with little difficulty prevented.
It is the same with other bad habits. False-
hood, caprice, dishonesty, obstinacy, revenge>
and all the train of vices which are the con-
sequences of mistaken or neglected educa-
3

414 Practical Education.

tion, which are learned by bad example^ and
which are pot inspired by nature, need scarcely
be known to children whose minds have froni
their infancy been happily regulated. Such
children should be sedulously kept from conta-
gion ; their minds are untainted ; they are safe
in that species of ignorance which alone can
deserve the name of bliss. No books should
be put into the hands of this happy class of
children, but such as present the best models of
virtue : there is no occasion to shock them with
caricatures of vice. Such caricatures they will
not even understand to be well drawn, because
they are unacquainted with any thing like the
originals. Examples to deter them from faults
to which they have no propensity must be use-
less, and may be dangerous ; for the same rea-
son that a book, written in bad language, should
never be put into the hands of a child who
speaks correctly ; a book exhibiting instances of
vice should never be given to a child who thinks
and acts properly. The love of novelty and of
imitation is so strong rn children, that even for
the pleasure of imitating characters described in
a book, or actions which strike them as singular,
they often commit real faults.

To this danger of catching faults by sym-
pathy, children of the greatest simplicity are

Books. 416

perhaps the most liable, because they least un-.
derstand the nature and consequences of the
actions which they imitate.

During the age of imitation, our pupils
should not be exposed to the influence of
any bad examples till their habits are formed,
and till they have not only the sense to choose,
but the fortitude to abide by their own choice. It
may be said, that '^ children must know that
" vice exists; that, even amongst their own
" companions, there are some who have bad dis-
" positions ; they cannot mix even tn the society
*^ of children without seeing examples which
'^ they ought to be prepared to avoid."

These remarks are just with regard to pupils
who are intended for a public school, and no
great nicety in the selection of their books is
necessary ; but we are now speaking of those
who are to be brought up in a private family.
Why should they be prepared to mix in the so-
ciety of those who have bad habits or bad dis-
positions ? Children should not be educated for
the society of children ; nor should they live ia
that society during their education. We must
not expect from them premature prudence, and
all the social virtues, before we have taken any
measures to produce these virtues, or thij tardy
prudence. In private education there is little
chance that one error should balance another ;

4 1 6 Practical JE ducat ion,

the experience of the pupil is much confined ;
the examples which he sees are not so numerous
and various as to counteract each other. No-
thing therefore must be expected from the coun-
teracting influence of opposing causes ; nothing
should be left to chance. Experience must pre-
serve one uniform tenor, and examples must be
selected with circumspection. The less children
associate with companions of their own age, and
the less they know of the world, and th^ stronger
their taste for literature, the more forcible will
be the impression that will be made upon them
by the pictures of life, aud the characters and
sentiments which they meet with in books.
Books for such children ought to be sifted by an
academy * of enlightened parents.

Without particular examples, the most obvi*
ous truths are not brought home to our business.
We shall select a few examples from a work of
high and deserved reputation, from a work which
we much admire, *^ Berquin's Children's Friend."
We do not mean to criticise this work as a lite*
rary production, but simply to point out to pa*
rents, that, even in the best books for children,
much must still be left to the judgment of the
preceptor, much in the choice of stories, and
particular passages suited to different pupils-

• V. Acad6mie DeUa Crusca-

Books. ^\J

la " The Children's Friend" there are seve-
ral stories well adapted tq one clg^ss of children,
hqt entirely unfit for another. I^ the story
called the Hobgoblin, Antonia, a little girl
" who has been told a hundred foolish stories
" by her maid, particularly one about a black-
ly faced goblin," is represented as qiaking a la-
ii|pn table outcry at the sight of a chimney-
sweeper ; first she runs fof refuge to the kitchen,
the last place to which she should run ; then to
the pantry; thence she jumps out of the win-
dow, ^' half dead with terror,'* and in the ele-
gc^pt language of the translator, almost splits her
throat, zvith crying out Help I Help I In a few
minutes she discovers her error, is heartily
ashamed, and '^ ever afterwards Antonia was
" the first to laugh at silly stories, told by silly
*^ people, of hobgoblins, and the like, to fright
« her."

jFor children who have had the misfortune tf^
Jjaye heard the hundred foolish stories of a fool-
ish maid, this apparition of the chimney-sweeper
is well managed ; though, perhaps, ridiculp
might not effect so sudden a cure in all cases sis
it did in th?it of Antonia. By chiWren who
jhave not acquired terrors of the black -faced gob-
Jin, and who have not the habit of frequenting
the kitchen and the pantry, this &tory should
never be read.

VOL. I. 2 £

418 Practical Education.

' *^ The little miss deceived by her maid/' who
takes mamma's keys out of her drawers, and
who steals sugar and tea for her maid, that she
may have the pleasure of playing with a cousin
whom her mother had forbidden her to see, is
not an example that need be introduced into
any well regulated family. The picture of
Amelia's misery is drawn by the hand of a mas-
ter : tei'ror and pity, we are told by the tragic
poets, purify the mind ; but there are minds
that do not require this species of purification.
Powerful antidotes are necessary to combat
powerful poisons ; but where no poison has
been imbibed, are not antidotes more dangerous
than useful?

The young gentlemen who cheat at cards,
and who pocket silver fish, should have no
admittance any where. It is not necessary to
put children upon their guard against associ-
ates whom they are not likely to meet; nor
need we introduce the vulgar and mischievous
schoolboy to any but schoolboys. Martin, who
throws squibs at people in the street, who
fastens rabbits' tails behind their backs, who
fishes for their wigs, who sticks up pins in
his friends' chairs, who carries a hideous mask
in his pocket to frighten little children, and
who is himself frightened into repentance by
a spectre with a speaking trumpet, is an ob^'

Books. .4\Q

jectionable though an excellent dramatic cha-
racter. The part of the spectre is played by
the groom: this is ill contrived in a drama
for children ; grooms should have nothing
to do with their entertainments ; and Caesarj,
who is represented as a pleasing character,
should not be supposed to make the postillion
a party in his inventions.

" A good heart compensates for many indiscre*
" tio7is'' is a dangerous title for a play for young
people : because ma7iy is an indefinite term ; and
in settling how many, the calculations of parents
and children may vary materially. This little
play is so charmingly written, the character of
the imprudent and generous Frederick is so
likely to excite imitation, that we must doubly
regret his intimacy with the coachman, his
running avi^ay. from school, and drinking beer
at an alehouse in a fair. The coachman is
an excellent old man ; be is turned away for
having let master Frederick mount his box, as-
sume the whip, and overturn a handsome carriage.
Frederick, touched with gratitude and compas-
sion, gives the old man all his pocket-money,
and sells a watch . and some books to buy
clothes for. him. . The motives of Frederick's
conduct are excellent, and as they are mis-
represented by a treacherous and hjpocriticatl
2E 2

446 Practical Education.

cousin, we sympathize more strongly with the
hero of the piece ; and all his indiscretions
appear, at least, amiable defects. A nice ob*
server* of the human heart says, that we are
never inclined to cure ourselves of any defect
which makes us agreeable. Frederick's real
virtues will not, probably, excite imitation
so much as his imaginary excellencies. We
should take the utmost care not to associate
in the tnind the ideas of imprudence, and
bf generosity ; of hypocrisy, and of prudence :
on the contrary, it should be shown that pru-
dence is necessary to real benevolence ; that
tio virtue is more useful, and consequently
'ifnore respectable, than justice. These homely
'tnith« will nevier be attended to as the coun-
tter-checfc moral of an interesting story ; stories
which require such morals shouid therefore be
Avoided.

It is to be hoped, that select parts of " The
^* Children's Friettd>" translated by some able
hand, will be published hereafter for the use
ibf private families. Many of the stories, to
which we have ventured to object, are by no
taeans unfit for schoolboys, to whom the charac*
ters which are most exceptionable cannot be new.

* Marmbntel. ** Dn ne se gu6rit pas d'un defaut qui plait."

Books. 421

The vulgarity of language which we have no-
ticed is not to be attributed to M. Berquin,
but to his wretched translator. L'Ami des
Enfens is, in French, most elegantly written.
The Little Canary Bird, Little George, The
Talkative Little Girl, The Four Seasons, and
many others, are excellent both in point of
style and dramatic effect ; they are exactly
suited to the understanding of children, and
they interest without any improbable events,
or unnatural characters.

In fiction it is difficult to avoid giving children
false ideas of virtue, and still more difficult
to keep the different virtues in their due
proportions. This should be attended to with
care in all books for young people ; nor
should we sacrifice the understanding to the
enthusiasm of eloquence, or the affectation of
sensibility. Without the habit of reasoning,
the best dispositions can give us no solid se-
curity for happiness, therefore we should early
cultivate the reasoning faculty, instead of always
appealing to the imagination. By sentimental
persuasives a child may be successfully governed
for a time, but no power can continue the
delusion long. The reasoning in the stories of
"Joseph;"* " the^Fl<}wer that never fades ;^

* Be r^juilx.

422, Practical^ Education*

and/ " a Competence is best," appear to ht
of the sentimental kind, Henry gets amongst
a rabble of boys in a village, to tease a poor
man of the name of Joseph, who has the
misfortune to be out of his senses. Henry's
ather, in a sentimental conversation, attempts
to convince him of the folly and wickedness
of his conduct ; it is so managed, that the
boy's conscience is alarmed, and his under-
standing has no share in, his penitence. He
asks pardon of heaven, but presently he joins
the rabble rout again, and exasperates the poor
madman, who throws a stone at his tormentors,
which wounds Henry's cheek, and nearly cuts
off his ear. In this condition he is carried home
to his father, who tells him that this is a
judgment for his crime. ^^ How comes it,"
says the bleeding boy, " that the stone hit
^^ my head alone, when all the rest of my
" companions are more in fault than I ? "
" Because," answers his father, " you know
" better than they did that you were doing
" wrong." This method of reasoning will not
make children conscientious, because whenever
they escape judgments, they will imagine that
they do not merit punishment ; and the stone
does^ not always hit the guilty head. The fa-
ther's answer to his son should have been, " I
" cannot tell why the ^stone hit your head.

Books. 423

** but I am sure that you deserved it more
'^ than your companions, because you knew
*' better than they did tliat you were doing
" wrong." In " the Flower that never fades/*
a weeping governess talks to her pupil in such
a strain about a fault so horrid that she cannot
bring herself to name it; that the child becomes
dumb, trembles, sighs, and at last, " J'a/ls half
" swooning, as it were, beside a ^verdant hillockJ'
This '' deed without a name" proves to be a
little childish vanity, which had made the young
lady talk in too decisive a tone of voice at
breakfast upon some historical point, show her
writing with an air of triumph in her eyes,
and put Miss Elizabeth out by keeping bad
time on the piano forte* Mademoiselle's elo-
quence appears too pathetic for the occasion,
and though it [' pierced the heart of the tender
" Emily," it might not have the same effect on
persons of a more phlegmatic temperament. An
appeal to the affections of a child should be made
only on great emergencies.

In the dialogue upon this maxim, " that
" a compi^tence is best," the reasoning of the
father is not a match for that of the son ; by
using less eloquence, the father might have
made out his case much better. The boy sees
that many people are richer than his father,
and perceiving that their riches procure a great

4ik Pi^actical JEducaiion.

number of conveniences and comforts for them,
he asks why his father, who is as good as
these opulent people, should not also be as
rich. His father tells him that he is rich,
that he has a large garden, and a fine estate ;
the boy asks to see it, and his father takes
him to the top of a high hill, and showing
iiim an extensive prospect, says to him, " All
" this is my. estate." The boy cross questions
his father, and finds out that it is not his
estate, but that he may enjoy the pleasure of
looking at it, and that he can buy wood when
he wants it for firing ; venison, without hunt-
ing the deer himself; fish, Without fishing; and
butter, without possessing all the cows that
graze in the valley ; therefore he calls himself
master of the woods, the deer, the herds, the
huntsmen, and the labourers that he beholds.
This is poetic philosophy,^ but it is not suf-
ficiently accurate for a child ; it would confound
his ideas of property, and it would be imme^
diately contradicted by his experience. The
father's reasoning is perfectly good, and well
adapted to his pupil's capacity, w^hen he asks
*^ whether he should not require a superfluous
" appetite to enjoy superfluous dishes at his
*' 'meals." In returning from his walk, the boy

* V. Hor. 2 Epist. lib. ii.

Books. 425

sees a mill that is out of repair, a meadow
that is flooded, and a quantity of hay spoiled ;
he observes that the owners of these things
must be sadly vexed by such accidents, and
his father congratulates himself upon their not
being his property. Here is a direct contra-
diction ; for a few minutes before he had as-
serted that they belonged to him. Property
is often the cause of much anxiety to its
possessor; but the question is, whether the
pains, or the pleasures of possessing it predomi-
nate ; if this question could not be fully
discussed, it should not be partially stated.
To silence a child in argument is easy, to con-
vince him is difficult; sophistry or wit should
never be used to confound the understanding.
Reason has equal force from the lips of the giant
and 'of the dwarf.

These minute criticisms may appear invidious,
but it is hoped that they will be considered only
as illustrations of general principles; illustrations
necessary to our subject. We have chosen
M. Berquin's work because of its universal po-
pularity ; probably all the examples which
have been selected are in the recollection of
most readers, or at least it is easy to refer to
them, because " The Children's Friend" is to
be found in every house where there are any
children. The principles by which we have
6

426 Practical Education.

examined Berquin may be applied to all books
of the same class. The superior merit of Sand-
ford and Merton has long been well known io
the public ; Madame de Silleri's Theatre of
Education, and her Tales of the Castle ; Ma-
dame de la Fite's Tales and Conversations ;
Mrs. Smith's Rural Walks, with many other
popular books for children, would deserve a
separate analysis, if literary criticism were our
object. A critic once, with indefatigable ill-
nature, picked out all the faults of a beautiful
poem, and presented them to Apollo. The god
ordered a bushel of his best Parnassian wheat to
be carefully winnowed, and he presented the
critic with the chaff. Our wish is to separate
the small portion of what is useless from the
excellent nutriment contained in the books we
have mentioned.

With respect to sentimental stories, and books
of mere entertainment, we must remark, that
they should be sparingly used, especially in the
education of girls. This species of reading cul-
tivates what is called the heart prematurely,
lowers the tone of the mind, and induces indif-
ference for those common pleasures and occupa-
tions which, however trivial in themselves, con-
stitute by far the greatest ' portion of our daily
happiness. Stories are the novels of childhood.
We know, from common expeiience, the effect*

Books. ATI

which are produced upon the female mind by
immoderate novel-reading. To those who ac-
quire this taste, every object becomes disgusting
which is not in an attitude for poetic painting;
a species of moral picturesque is sought for in
every scene of life, and this is not always com-
patible with sound sense, or with simple reality.
Gainsborough's country girl, as it has been hu-
morously* remarked, is " a much more pic-
*^ turesque object than a girl neatly dressed in a
" clean white frock ; but for this reason are all
" children to go in rags?" A tragedy heroine,
weeping, swooning, dying, is a moral-pictu-
resque object ; but the frantic passions, which
have the' best effect upon the stage, might, when
exhibited in domestic life, appear to be drawn
upon too large a scale to please. The difference
between reahty and fiction is so great, that those
who copy from any thing but nature are conti-
nually disposed to make mistakes in their con-
duct, which appear ludicrous to the impartial
spectator. Pathos depends on such nice cir-
cumstances, that domestic, sentimental distresses
are in a perilous situation ; the sympathy of their
audience is hot always in the power of the fair
performers. Frenzy itself may be turned to

* V. a Letter of Mr. Wyndham's to Mr, Repton, in
Eepton oa Landscape Gardening.

428 Practical Education.

farce. * " Entei^ the princess mad, in white sa-
*^ tin ; and her attendant mad, in white hnen."

Besides the danger of creating a romantic
taste, there is reason to beheve, that the species
of reading to which we object has an effect di-
rectly opposite to what it is intended to produce.
It dimmishes, instead of increasing, the sensibi-
lity of the heart ; a combination of romantic
imagery is requisite to act upon the associations
of sentimental people, and they are virtuous
only w^hen virtue is in perfectly good taste. An
eloquent philosopher ^ observes, that in the de-
scription of scenes of distress in romance and
poetry the distress is always made elegant ; the
imagination, which has been accustomed to this
delicacy in fictitious narrations, revolts from the
disgusting circumstances which attend real po-
verty, disease, and misery ; the emotions of pity,
and the exertions of benevolence, are conse-
quently repressed precisely at the time when they
are necessary to humanity.

With respect to pity, it is a spontaneous, na-
tural emotion, which is strongly felt by children;
but they, cannot properly be said to feel benevo-
l^ce till they are capable of reasoning. Charity
must in them be a double virtue; they cannot
be competent judges as to the general utility of

^ The Critic. + Professor Stewart.

Books. 42Q

what they give. Persons of the most enlarged
understanding find it necessary to be extremely
cautious in charitable donations, lest they should
do more harm than good. Children cannot see
beyond the first link in the chain which holds
society together ; at the best, then, their charity
can be but a partial virtue. But in fact children
have nothing to give ; they think that they give
when they dispose of the property of their pa-
rents ; they sufiT?r no privation by this sort of
generosity, and they learn ostentation instead of
practising self-denial. Berquin, in his excellent
story of " The Little Needle Woman," has made
the children give their own work ; here the plea-
sure of employment is immediately connected
with the gratification of benevolent feelings ;
their pity is not merely passive, it is active and
useful.

In fictitious narratives affection for parents,
and for brothers and sisters, is often painted in
agreeable colours, to excite the admiration and
sympathy of children, Caroline, the charming
little girl who gets upon a chair to wipe away
the tears that trickle down her elder sister's cheek
when her mother is displeased with her,* forms
a natural and beautiful picture ; but the desire
to imitate Caroline must produce affectation.

* Betqpln,

430 Practical Education,

All the simplicity of youth is gone, the moment
children perceive that they are extolled for the
expression of fine feelings and fine sentiments.
Gratitude, esteem, and affection, do not depend
upon the table of consanguinity ; they are invo-
luntary feelings, which cannot be raised at plea-
sure by the voice of authority ; they will not
obey the dictates of interest ; they secretly de-
spise the anathemas of sentiment. Esteem and
affection are the necessary consequences of a
certain course of conduct, combined with certain
external circumstances, which are, more or less,
in the power of every individual. To arrange
these circumstances prudently, and to pursue a
proper course of conduct -steadily, something
more is necessary than the transitory impulse of
sensibility or of enthusiasm.

There is a class of books which amuse the
imagination of children without acting upon
their feelings. We do not allude to fairy tales,
for we apprehend that these are not now much
read, but we mean voyages and travels; these
interest young people universally. Robinson
Crusoe, Gulliver, and the three Russian Sailors
who were cast away upon the coast of Norway,
are general favourites. No child ever read an
account of a shipwreck, or even a storm, with-
out pleasure. A desert island is a delightful
place, to be equalled only by the skating land of

Books. 431

the rein-deer, or by the valley of diamonds in
the Arabian Tales. Savages, especially if they
be cannibals, are sure to be admired; and the
more hair-breadth escapes the hero of the tale
has survived, and the more marvellous his ad-
ventures, the more sympathy he excites.

Will it be thought to proceed from a spirit of
contradiction, if we remark, that this species of
reading should not early be chosen for boys of
an enterprising temper, unless they are intended
for a sea-faring life, or for the army ? The taste
for adventure is absolutely incompatible vt^ith
the sober perseverance necessary to success in
any other liberal profession. To girls, this spe-
cies of reading cannot be as dangerous as it is to
boys ; girls must soon perceive the impossibility,
of their rambling about the w^orld in quest of
adventures ; and w^here there appears an obvious
impossibility in gratifying any wish, it is not
likely to become, or at least to continue, a tor-
ment to the imagination. Boys, on the contrary,
from the habits of their education, are prone to
admire and to imitate every thing like enterprise
and heroism. Courage and fortitude are the vir-
tues of men, and it is natural that boys should
desire, if they believe that they possess these
virtues, to be placed in those great and extraor-
dinary situations which can display them to ad-
vantage. The taste for adventure is not repressed
3

432 Practical Education.

in boys by the impossibility of its indulgence^
the world is before them, and they think that
fame promises the highest prize to thos^e who
will most boldly venture in the lottery of for-
tune : the rational probability of success few
young people are able, fewer still are willing, to
calculate;* and the calculations of prudent friends
have little power over their understandings, or at
least over their imagination ; the part of the un-
derstanding which is most likely to decide their
conduct. From general maxims we cannot ex-
pect that young people should learn much pru-
dence; each individual admits the propriety of
the rule, yet believes himself to be a privileged
exception. Where any prize is supposed to be
in the gift of fortune, every man, or every youngs
man, takes it for granted that he is a favourite,
and that it will be bestowed upon him. The
profits of commerce and of agriculture, the pro-
fits of every art and profession, can be estimated
with tolerable accuracy ; the value of activity,
application, and abilities, can be respectively
measured by some certain standard. Modest, or
even prudent people, will scruple to rate them-
selves in all of these qualifications superior to their
neighbours; but every man will allow that, in
point of good fortune, at any game of chance, he

* Smith. Essay on the Wealth of Natio^.

Books. 433

thinks himself upon a fair level with every other
competitor.

When a young man dehberates upon what
course of life he shall follow^ the patietit drud-
gery of a trade, the laborious, mental exertions
requisite to prepare him for a profession, must
appear to him in a formidable light, compared
with the alluring prospects presented by an ad-
venturing imagination. At this time of life it
will be too late suddenly to change the taste ; it
will be inconvenient, if not injurious, to restrain
a young man's inclinations by force or authority ;
it will be imprudent, perhaps fatally imprudent,
to leave them uncontrolled. Precautions should
therefore be taken long before this period, and
the earlier they are taken the better. It is not
idle refinement to assert, that the first impres-
sions which are made upon the imagination,
though they may be changed by subsequent cir-
cumstances, yet are discernible in every change,
and are seldom entirely eft'aced from the mind,
though it may be difficult to trace them through
all their various appearances. A boy, who at
seven years old longs to be Robinson Crusoe, or
Sindbad the sailor, may at seventeen retain the
same taste for adventure and enterprise, though
mixed, so as to be less obvious, with the inci-
pient passions of avarice and ambition ; he has
the same, dispositions modified by a slight know-
VOL. I. 2 F

434 Practical Education.

ledge of real life, and guided by the manners
and conversation of his friends and acquaintance.
Robinson Crusoe and Sindbad will no longer be
his favourite heroes ; but he will now admire the
soldier of fortune, the commercial adventurer, or
the nabob who has discovered in the east the
secret of Aladdin's wonderful lamp, and who has.
realized the treasures of Aboulcasem.

The history of realities written in an entertain-
ing manner appears not only better suited to the
purposes of education, but also more agreeable
to young people than improbable fictions. We
have seen the reasons why it is dangerous to
pamper the taste early with mere books of enter-
tainment; to voyages and travels we have made
some objections. Natural history is a study par-
ticularly suited to children : it cultivates their
talents for observation, applies to objects within
their reach, and to objects which are every day
interesting to them. The histories of the bee,
the ant, the caterpillar, the butterfly, the silk-
worm, are the first things that please the tast^
of children, and these are the histories of reali-
ties.

No one can; be so injudicious, or so unjust,
as to class the excellent " Evenings at Home"
amongst books of mere entertainment. Upon
a close examination, it appears to be the best
book for young people from seven to ten years

Books. '. 43^

old, that has yet appeared. We shall not pre-
tend to enter into a minute examination of it;
because, from what we have already said, pa-
rents can infer our sentiments, and we wish tQ
avoid tedious, unnecessary detail. We shali^
however, just observe, that the lessons on na-
tural history, on metals, and on chemistry, are
particularly useful, not so much from the quan-
tity of knowledge which they contain, as by
the agreeable manner in which it is communi-
cated : the mind is opened to extensive views,
at the same time that nothing above the com-
prehension of children is introduced. The
mixture of moral and scientific lessons is hap-
pily managed so as to relieve the attention ;
some of the moral lessons contain sound argur
ment, and some display just views of life.
" Perseverance against Fortune,'* '^ The Price
*' of Victory," '^ Eyes and no Eyes," have
been generally admired as much by children as
by parents.

The *^ Conversations d'Emile " are elegantly
written, and the characters of the mother and
child admirably well preserved. White of Sel-
borne's Naturalist's Calendar we can recommend
with entire approbation : it is written in a fa-
miliar, yet elegant style ; and the journal-form
gives it that air of reality, which is so agreeable
and interesting to the mind.

2 F 2

436 Practical Education,

• '^''Smellie's Natural History is a useful^ enter-
taining book ; but it must be carefully looked
over, and many pages and half pages must be
entirely sacrificed. And here one general cau-
tion may be necessary. It is hazarding too
much to make children promise not to read parts
of any book which is put into their hands ;
when the book is too valuable in a parent's es-
timation to be cut or blotted, let it not be given
to children when they are alone : in a parent's
presence there is no danger, and the children
will acquire the habit of reading the passages
that are selected without feeling curiosity about
the rest. As young people grow up they will
judge of the selections that have been made for
them ; they will perceive why such a passage
was fit for their understanding at one period,
which they could not have understood at an-
other. If they are never forced to read what is
tiresome, they will anxiously desire to have pas-
sages selected for them, and they will not ima-
gine that their parents are capricious in these
selections ; but they will, we speak from experi-
ence, be sincerely grateful to them for the time
and trouble bestowed in procuring their literary
amusements.

When 3^oung people have established their
character for truth and exact integrity, they
should be entirely trusted with books as with

Books. 437

every thing else. A slight pencil-line at the
side of the page will then be all that is neces-
saiy to guide them to the best parts of any book.
Suspicion would be as injurious, as too easy a
faith is imprudent : confidence confirms inte-
grity ; but the habits of truth must be formed
before dangerous temptations are presented.
We intended to have given a list of books, and
to have named the pages in several authors^
which have been found interesting to children
from seven to nine or ten years old. The Re-
views, The Annual Registers, Enfield's Speaker,
Elegant Extracts, The papers of the Manches-
ter Society, The French Academy of Sciences,
Priestly's History of Vision, and parts of the
Works of Franklin, of Chaptal, Lavoisier, and
Darwin, have supplied us with our best materials.
Some periodical papers from the World, Ram-
bler, Guardian, and Adventurer, have been
chosen: these are books with which all libraries
are furnished. But we forbear to offer any list ;
the passages we should have mentioned have been
found to please in one family, but we are sen-
sible that, as circumstances vary, the choice of
books for' different families ought to be dif-
ferent. Every parent must be capable of select-
ing those passages in books which are most
suited to the age, temper, and taste of their
children. Much of the success, both of lite-

itd8 Practical Education.

rary and moral education, will depend upon our
l^izing the hapjiy moments for instruction ; mo»
raents when kuowledgo immediately applies to
wliat children are intent upon themselves ; ihc
stop which U to be taken by the understanding
ifhould immediately follow that which has aU
ready been secured. By wntchinjj; the turn of
miqd, and by attending to the conversation of
children, we may perceive exactly what will
suit them in books ; and we may preserve the
connexion of their ideas without fatiguing their
attention. A paragraph i*ead aloud from the
newspaper of the day, a passage from any book
which parents happen to be reading themselves,
will catch the attention of the young people in
a family, and will perhaps excite more taste and
more curiosity, than could be given by whole
volumes read at times when the mind is indolent
or, intent upon other occupations.
.«,,Tho custom of reading aloud for a great
while together is extremely fatiguing to chil-
dren,* and hurtful to their understandings ; they
learn to read on without the slightest attention or
thought; tlie more fluently they read, the worse
it is for them ; for their preceptors, whilst words
and sentences are pronounced with tolerable
emphasis, never seem to susj)ect that the reader
can be tired, or that his mind may be absent
from lus book. The monotonous tones which

Books. 430

are acquired by children, who read a great deal
aloud, are extremely disagreeable, and the habit
cannot easily be broken ; we may observe that
children who have not acquired bad customs al-
ways read as they speak, when they understand
what they read ; but the moment they come to
any sentence which they do not comprehend,
their voice alters, and they read with hesitation,
of with false emphasis ; to these signals a pre-
ceptor should always attend, and the passage
should be explained before the pupil is taught
to read it in a musical tone, or with the proper
emphasis ; thus children should be taught to read
by the understanding, and not merely by the
ear. Dialogues, dramas, and well-written nar-
ratives, they always read well, and these should
be their exercises in the art of reading ; they
should be allowed to put down the book as soon
as they are tired ; but an attentive tutor will
perceive when they ought to be stopped, before
the utmost point of fatigue. We have heard a
boy of nine years old, who had never been
taught elocution by any reading-master, read
simple, pathetic passages, and natural dialogues
in " Evenings at Home," in a manner which
would have made even Sterne's critic forget
his stop-watch. By reading much at a time, it
is true, that a great number of books are run
through in a few years ; but this is not at all

440 Practical Education.

out object f on the contrary, our greatest diffi-
culty has been to find a sufficient number of
books fit for children to read. If they early
acquire a strong taste for literature, no matter
how few authors they may have perused. We
have often heard young people exclaim, ^^ Tm
" glad I have not read such a book. I have
*^ a great pleasure to come ! " Is not this better
than to see a child yawn over a work, and count
the number of tiresome pages, whilst he says,
^^ I shall have got through this book by and by ;
*' and what must I read when I have done
*' this ? I believe I never shall have read all I
^^ am to read ! What a number of tiresome books
^' there are in the world ! I wonder what can be
^* the reason that I must read them all. If I
^^ were but allowed to skip the pag^s that I
*^ don't understand, I should be much happier ;
^^ for when I come to any thing entertaining in a
^^ book, I can keep myself awake, and then I
'' like reading as well as any body does."

Far from forbidding to skip the incomprehen^
sible pages, or to close the tiresome volume,
we should exhort our pupils never to read one
single page that tires, or that they do not fully
understand. We need not fear, that, because
an excellent book is not interesting at on^
period of education, it should not become inr
terestjng ^t another ; the child is always the best

Books. 441

judge of what is suited to his present capacity.
If he says, '^ Such a book tires me ; the pre-
ceptor should never answer with a forbidding, re-
proachful look, ^' I am surprised at that, it is no
" great proof of your taste ; the book, which
" you say tires you, is WTitten by one of the
" best authors in the English language." The
boy is sorry for it, but he cannot help it : and
he concludes, if he be of a timid temper, that
he has no taste for literature, since the best au-
thors in the English language tire him. It is in
vain to tell him that the book is " universally
^^ allowed to be very entertaining."

" If It be not such to me,

" What care I how fine it be ! "

The more encouraging, and more judicious
parent would answer upon a similar occasion,
*^ You are right not to read what tires you, my
" dear ; and I am glad that you have sense enough
*^ to tell me that this book does not entertain
^' you, though it is written by one of the best
" authors in the English language. We do not
^^ think at all the worse of your taste and un-
*^ derstanding ; we know that the day will come
** when this book will probably entertain you ;
" put it by till thenf, I advise you."

It may be thought that young people, who

442 Practical Education,

read only those parts of books which are enter-
taining, or those which are selected for them, are
in danger of learning a taste for variety and
desultory habits which may prevent their ac-
quiring accurate knowledge upon any subject ;
and which may render them incapable of that
literary application, without which nothing can
be well learned. We hope the candid precep-
tor will suspend his judgment till we can explain
our sentiments upon this subject more fully,
when we examine the nature of Invention and
Memory.

The secret fear that stimulates parents to com-
pel their children to constant application to
certain books arises, from the opinion, that much
chronological and historical knowledge must at
all events be acquired during a certain number
of years. The knowledge of history is thought
a necessary accomplishment in one sex, and an
essential part of education in the other. We
ought, however, to distinguish between that
knowledge of history and of chronology which
is really useful, and that which is acquired
merely for parade. We must call that useful
knowledge which enlarges the view of human
life, and of human nature ; which teaches by
the experience of the past, what we may expect
in future. To study history as it relates to
these objects, the pupil must have acquired

Books. 443

much previous knowledge ; the habit of reason-
ing, and the power of combining distant ana*
Jogies. The works of Hume, of Robertson,
Gibbon, or Voltaire, can be properly understood
only by well informed and highly cultivated
understandings. Enlarged views of policy, some
knowledge of the interests of commerce, of the
progress and state of civilization, and literature
in different countries, are necessary to whoever
studies these authors with real advantage.
Without these, the finest sense and the finest
writing must be utterly thrown away upon the
reader. Children, consequently, under the
name of fashionable histories, often read what
to them is absolute nonsense : they have very
little motive for the study of history, and all
that we can say to keep alive their interest,
amounts to the common argument, " that such
*' information will be useful to them hereafter,
" when they hear history mentioned in conver-
^' sation."

Some people imagine, that the memory resem-
bles a storehouse, in which we should early lay
up facts ; and they assert, that however useless
these may appear at the time when they are
laid up, they will afterwards be ready for service
at our summons. One allusion may be fairly
answered by another, since it is impossible to
oppose allusion by reasoning. In accumulating

444 Practical Education.

lacts, as in amassing riches, people often begin
by believing that they value w^ealth only for the
use they shall make of it ; but it often happens,
that during the course of their labours they learn
habitually to set a value upon the coin itself,
and they grow avaricious of that which they
are sensible has little intrinsic value. Young
people, who have accumulated a vast number of
facts, and names, and dates, perhaps intended
originally to make some good use of their trea-
sure; but they frequently forget their laudable
intentions, and conclude by contenting them-
selves with the display of their nominal wealth.
Pedants and misers forget the real use of wealth
and knowledge ; and they accumulate, without
rendering what they acquire useful to themselves
or to others.

A number of facts are often stored in the mind,
which lie there useless, because they cannot be
found at the moment when they are wanted.
It is not sufficient in education to store up know-
ledge ; it is essential to arrange facts so that
they shall be ready for use, as materials for the
imagination, or the judgment, to select and
combine. The power of retentive memory is
exercised too much, the faculty of recollective
memory is exercised too little, by the common
modes of education. Whilst children are reading
the. history of kings^ and battles, and victories.

Books, 445

whilst they are learning tables of chronology and
lessons of geography by rote, their inventive
and their reasoning faculties are absolutely
passive ; nor are any of the facts which they
learn in this manner associated with circum-
stances in real life. These trains of ideas may
with much pains and labour be fixed in the
memory, but they must be recalled precisely in
the order in which they were learnt by rote, and
this is not the order in which they may be
wanted : they will be conjured up in technical
succession, or in troublesome multitudes. Many
people are obliged to repeat the alphabet before
they can recollect the relative place of any given
letter ; others repeat a column of the multiplica-
tion-table before they can recollect the sum of
the numbers which they want. There is a
common rigmarole for telling the number of days
in each month in the year ; those who have
learned it by heart usually repeat the whole
of it before they can recollect the place of the
month which they want ; and sometimes, in
running over the lines, people miss the very
month which they are thinking of, or repeat its
name without perceiving that they have named
it. In the same manner, those who have learned
historical or chronological facts in a technical
mode, must go through the whole train of their
rigmarole associations before they can hit upon
the idea which* they want. Lord Bolingbroke

446 Practical Education.

mentions an acquaintance of his, who had an
amazing collection of facts in his memory, but
unfortunately he could never produce one of
them in the proper moment ; he was always
obliged to go back to some fixed landing-place
from which he was accustomed to take his flight.
Lord Bolingbroke used to be afraid of asking
him a question, because, when once he begun,
he went off like a larum, and could not be
stopped ; he poured out a profusion of things
which had nothing to do with the point in
question ; and it was ten to one but he omitted
the only circumstance that would have been
really serviceable. Many people who have
tenacious memories, and who have been ill-
educated, find themselves in a similar con-
dition, with much knowledge baled up, an
incumbrance to themselves and to their friends.
The great difference which appears in men of
the same profession, and in the same circum-
stances, depends upon the application of their
knowledge more than upon the quantity of
their learning.

With respect to a knowledge of history and
chronologic learning, every body is now nearly
upon a level ; this species of information cannot
be a great distinction to any one : a display of
such common knowledge is considered by lite-
rary people, and by men of genius especially,
as ridiculous and offensive. One motive

Books. 447

therefore, for loading the minds of children with
historic dates and facts, is likely, even from its
having universally operated, to cease to operate
in future. Without making it a laborious task
to young people, it is easy to give them such a
knowledge of history as will preserve them from
the shame of ignorance, and put them upon a
footing with men of good sense in society,
though not perhaps with men who have studied
history for the purpose of shining in conversa-
tion. For our purpose, it is not necessary early
to study voluminous, philosophic histories ; these
should be preserved for a more advanced period
of their education. The first thing to be done,
is ta seize the moment when curiosity is excited
by the accidental mention of any historic name
or event. When a child hears his father talk of
the Roman emperors, or of the Roman people,
he naturally inquires who these people were;
some short explanation may be given, so as to
leave curiosity yet unsatisfied. The prints of
the Roman emperors' heads, and Mrs. Trimmer's
prints of the remarkable events in the Roman
and English history, will entertain children.
Madame de Silleri, in her Adela and Theodore,
describes historical hangings, which she found
advantageous to her pupils. In a prince's, or a
nobleman's palace, such hangings would be
suitable decorations, or in a public seminary of

3

448 Practical Educatmi.

education it would be worth while to prepare
them ; private families would perhaps be alarmed
at the idea of expense, and at the idea that
their house could not readily be furnished in
proper time for the instruction of children.
As we know the effect of such apprehensions
of difficulty, we forbear from insisting upon
historical hangings, especially as we think that
children should not, by any great apparatus for
teaching them history, be induced to set an
exorbitant value upon this sort of knowledge,
and should hence be excited to cultivate their
memories without reasoning or reflecting. If
any expedients are thought necessary to fix
historic facts early in the mind, the entertaining
display of Roman emperors, and British kings
and queens, may be made, as Madame de Silleri
recommends, in a magic lanthorn, or by the
Ombres Chinoises. When these are exhibited,
there should be some care taken not to introduce
any false ideas. Parents should be present at
the spectacle, and should answer each eager
question with prudence. " Ha! here comes
" queen Elizabeth ! " exclaims the child ; was
" she a good woman ? " A foolish show-man
would answer, " Yes, master, she was the
*^ greatest queen that ever sat upon the English
" throne ! " A sensible mother would reply,
^^ My dear, I cannot answer that question ; you

Books. 449

" will read her history yourself; you will judge
" by her actions whether she was, or was not,
" a good woman." Children are often extremely
impatient to settle the precise merit and demerit
of every historical personage, with whose names
they become acquainted ; hut this impatience
should not be gratified by the short method of
referring to the characters given of these per-
sons in any common historical abridgment. We
should advise all such characters to be omitted
in books for children ; let those who read form a
judgment for themselves : this will do more
service to the understanding, than can be done
by learning by rote the opinion of any historian.
The good and bad qualities ; the decisive, yet
contradictory epithets, are so jumbled, together
in these characters, that no distinct notion can
be left in the reader's mind; and the same
words recur so frequently in the characters of
different kings, that they are read over in a
monotonous voice, as mere concluding sen-
tences, which come, of course, at the end of
every reign. " King Henry the Fifth was tall and
" slender ; with a long neck, engaging aspect,
" and limbs of the most elegant turn. * * ^
<(#*### His valour was such as no
'' danger could startle, and no difficulty could
" oppose. He managed the dissensions amongst
^ his enemies with such address as spoke him

VOL. I. 1 G

450 Practical Education.

" consummate in the arts of the cabinet. He
" was chaste, temperate, modest, and devout ; .
" scrupulously just in his administration, and
" severely exact in the discipline of his army,
" upon which he knew his glory and success
*' in a great measure depended. In a word,
" it must be owned that he was without an
" equal in the arts of war, policy, and govern-
*' ment. His great qualities were, however,
^' somewhat obscured by his ambition, and hi*
*^ natural propensity to cruelty."

Is it possible that a child of seven or eight
years old can acquire any distinct, or any just
ideas, from the perusal of this character of Henry
the Fifth ? yet it is selected as one of the best
drawn characters from a little abridgment of
the History of England, which is, in general,
as well done as any we have seen. Even the
least exceptionable historic abridgments require
the corrections of a patient parent. In abridg-
ments for children the facts are usually inter-
spersed with what the authors intend for moral
reflections, and easy explanations of political
events, which are meant to be suited to the
meanest capacities. These reflections and ex-
planations do much harm ; they instil prejudice,
and they accustom the young, unsuspicious
reader to swallow absurd reasoning, merely be-
cause it is often presented to thcm» If no

Books. 451

history can be found entirely free from these
defects, and if it be even impossible to correct
any completely, without writing the whole over
again, yet much may be done by those who
hear children read. Explanations can be given
at the moment when the difficulties occur.
When the young reader pauses to think, allow
him time to think, and suffer him to question
the assertions which he meets with in books
with freedom, and that minute accuracy which
is only tiresome to those who cannot reason.
The simple morality of childhood is continually
puzzled and shocked at the representation of
the crimes and the virtues of historic heroes.
History, when divested of the graces of elo-
quence, and of that veil which the imagination
is taught to throw over antiquity, presents a
disgusting, terrible list of crimes and calamities :
murders, assassinations, battles, revolutions, are
the memorable events of history. The love of
glory atones for military barbarity ; treachery
and fraud are frequently dignified with the
names of prudence and policy ; and the histo-
rian, desirous to appear moral and sentimental,
yet compelled to produce facts, makes out an
inconsistent, ambiguous system of morality. A
judicious and honest preceptor will not, how-
ever, imitate the false tenderness of the historian
for the dead, he will rather cQi:isider what is
2g2

A51 Practical Education.

most advantageous to the living; he will per-
ceive, that it is of more consequence that his
pupils should have distinct notions of right and
wrong, than that they should have perfectly by
rote all the Grecian, Roman, English, French,
all the IHly volumes of the Universal History.
A preceptor will not surely attempt, by any so-
phistry, to justify the crimes which sometimes
obtain the natne of heroism ; when his ingenu-
ous, indignant pupil verifies the astonishing nume-
ration of the hundreds and thousands that were
put to death by a conqueror, or that fell in one
battle, he will allow this astonishment and in-
dignation to be just, and he will rejoice that it
is strongly felt and expressed.

Besides the false characters which are some-
times drawn of indii^iduals in history, national
characters are ofifi^n decidedly given in a few
epithets, which prejudice the mind, and convey
no real information. Can a child learn any
thing but national prepossession from reading in
a character of the English nation, that " boys
^* before they can speak, discover that they
" know the proper guards in boxing with theif
*^ fists ; a quality that, perhaps, is peculiar to
'* the English, and is seconded by a strength of
*^ arm that few other people can exert. This
*^ gives their soldiers an infinite superiority in
*' all battles that are to be decided by the bayo-

Books. 453

*^ net screwed upon the musket?"* Why
should children be told that the Italians are
naturally revengeful ; the French naturally vain
and perfidious, " excessively credulous and
*^ litigious ;" that the Spaniards are naturally
jealous and haughty ? -f- The patriotism of an
enlarged and generous mind cannot, surely, de-
pend upon the early contempt inspired for
foreign nations. We do not speak of the educa-
tion necessary for naval and military men ; with
this we have nothing to do ; but surely it cannot
be necessary to teach national prejudices to
any other class of young men. If these preju-
dices are ridiculed by sensible parents, children
will not be misled by partial authors ; general
assertions will be of little consequence to those
who are taught to reason ; they will not be over-
awed by nonsense wherever they may meet
with it.

The words whig and tory occur frequently
in English history, and liberty and tyranny are
talked of — ^the influence of the crown — the rights
of the people. What are children of eight or
nine years old to understand by these expres-
sions ? and how can a tutor explain them, with-

♦ V. Guthrie's Geographical, Historical, and Commercial
Grammar, p. 186.
t Ibid. p. 398.

464 Practical Education*

out inspiring political prejudices? We do not
mean here to enter into any political discussion \
we think that children should not be taught the
principles of their preceptors, whatever they may
be; they should judge for themselves; and, till
they are able to judge, all discussion, all expla-
nations, should be scrupulously avoided. Whilst
they are children, the plainest chronicles are for
them the best histories, because they express no
• political tenets and dogmas. When our pupils
grow up, at whatever age they may be capable
of understanding them, the best authors who
have written on each side of the question, the
best works, without any party considerations,
should be put into their hands ; and let them
form their own opinions from facts and argu-
ments, uninfluenced by passion, and uncon-
trolled by authority.

As young people increase their collection of
historic facts, some arrangement will be neces-
sary to preserve these in proper order in the
memory. Priestley's Biographical Chart is an
ingenious contrivance for this purpose ; it should
hang up in the room where children read, or
rather where they live ; for we hope no room will
ever be dismally consecrated to their studies.
Whenever they hear any celebrated name men-
tioned, or when they meet with any in books,
they will run to search for these names in th^

Books. 455

biographical chart; and those who are used to
children will perceive, that the pleasure of this
search, and the joy of the discovery, will fix bio-
graphy and chronology easily in their memories.
Mortimer's Student's Dictionary, and Brookes's
Gazetteer, should, in a library or room which
children usually inhabit, be always within the
reach of children. If they are consulted at the
very moment they are wanted, much may be
learned from them ; but if there be any difficulty
in getting at these dictionaries, children forget
and lose all interest in the things which they
wanted to know. But if knowledge becomes
immediately useful or entertaining to them, there
is no danger of their forgetting. Who ever for-
gets Shakspeare's historical plays ? the arrange-
ments contrived and executed by others do not
always fix things so firmly in our remembrance,
as those which we have had some share in con-
triving and executing ourselves.

One of our pupils has drawn out a biographi-
cal chart upon the plan of Priestley's, inserting
such names only as he was well acquainted with ;
he found, that in drawing out this chart, a great
portion of general history and biography was
fixed in his memory. Charts, in the form of
Priestley's, but without the names of the heroes
&c. being inserted, would perhaps be useful for
schools and private families.

456 Practical Education.

There are two French historical works, which
we wish were well translated for the advantage
of those who do not understand French. The
chevalier Meheghan's Tableau de I'Histoire Mo-
derne, which is sensibly divided into epochs ;
and Condillac's View of Universal History, com-
prised in five volumes, in his " Cours d'Etude
'^ pour ITnstruction du Prince de Parme.'* This
history carries on, along with the records of wars
and revolutions, the history of the progress of
the human mind, of arts and sciences ; the view
of the different governments of Europe is full
and concise ; no prejudices are instilled, yet the
manly and rational eloquence of virtue gives life
and spirit to the work. The concluding address,
from the preceptor to his royal pupil, is written
with ^11 the enlightened energy of a man of
truth and genius. We do not recommend Con-
dillac's history as an elementary work, for this it
is by no means fit ; but it is one of the best his-
tories that a young man of fifteen or sixteen can
read. Millot, Elemens de THistoire Generale,
Ancienne & Moderne, is another useful work
for young persons.

We should observe that M. Condillac's Me-
taphysical Lessons, which are inserted in jhis
Cours d'Etude, are not suited to the capacity of
a child of seven years old. Without at present
attempting to examine the Abbe's system, we

Books* 45 J

may remark, that in education it is more neces-
sary to preserve the mind from prejudice, than ,
to prepare it for the adoption of any system.
Those who have attended to metaphysical pro-
ceedings know, that if a few apparently trifling
concessions be made in the beginning of the
business, a man of ingenuity may force us, in
the end, to acknowledge whatever he pleases.
It is impossible that a child can foresee these
consequences, nor is it probable that he should
have paid such accurate attention to the opera-
tions of his own mind, as to be able to detect
the fallacy, or to feel the truth, of his tutor's as-
sertions. A metaphysical catechism may readily
be taught to children ; they may learn to answer
almost as readily as Trenck answered in his sleep
to the guards who regularly called to him every
night at midnight. Children may answer expertly
to the questions, " What is attention ? What
" is memory ? What is imagination ? What is
" the difference between wit and judgment?
" How many sorts of ideas have you, and which
" be they?" But when they are perfect in their
responses to all these questions, how much are
they advanced in real knowlege ?

Allegory has mixed with metaphysics almost
as much as with poetry ; personifications of me*
mory and imagination are familiar to us ; to each
have been addressed odes and sonnets, so that

3

45S Practical Education.

we almost believe in their individual existence,
or at least we are become jealous of the separate
attributes of these ideal beings. This metaphy-
sical mythology may be ingenious and elegant,
but it is better adapted to the pleasures of poetry
than to the purposes of reasoning. Those who
have been accustomed to respect and believe in
it will find it difficult soberly to examine any
argument upon abstract subjects ; their favourite
prejudices will retard them when they attempt
to advance in the art of reasoning. All accurate,
metaphysical reasciners have pei'ceived and de-
plored the difficulties which the prepossessions
of education have thrown in their way; and
they have been obliged to waste their time and
powers in fruitless attempts to vanquish these in
their own minds, or in those of their readers.
Can we wish in education to perpetuate similar
errours, and to transmit to another generation the
same artificial imbecility? Or can we avoid
these evils, if, with our present habits of think-
ing and speaking, we attempt to teach metaphy-
sics to children of seven years old ?

A well-educated, intelligent young man, ac-
customed to accurate reasoning, yet brought up
without any metaphysical prejudices, wouW be
a treasure to a metaphysician to cross-examine :
he would be eager to hear the unprejudiced
youth's evidenccy as the monarch, who had or*

Books, 459

dcred a child to be shut up, without hearing one
word of any human language, from infancy to
manhood, was impatient to hear what would
be the first word that he uttered. But though
we wish extremely well to the experiments of
metaphysicians, we are more intent upon the ad-
vantage which our unprejudiced pupils would
themselves derive from their judicious educa-
tion : probably they would, coming fresh to the
subject, make some discoveries in the science
of metaphysics ; they would have no paces * to
show ; perhaps they might advance a step or two
on this difficult ground.

When we object to the early initiation of no-
vices into metaphysical mysteries, we only re-
commend it to preceptors not to teach : let pupils
learn whatever they please, or whatever they
can, without reading any metaphysical books,
and without hearing any opinions, or learning
any definitions by rote; children may reflect
upon their own feelings, and they should be en-
couraged to make accurate observations upon
their own minds. Sensible children will soon, for
instance, observe the effect of habit, which
enables them to repeat actions with ease and faci-
lity, which they have frequently performed. The

* V, punciad,

46o Practical Education.

association of ideas, as it assists them to remein«
ber particular things, will soon be noticed, though
not perhaps in scientific words. The use of the
association of pain or pleasure, in the form of
what we call reward and punishment, may pro-
bably be early perceived. Children will be de-
lighted with these discoveries if they are suffered
to make them, and they will apply this know-
ledge in their own education. Trifling daily
events will recall their observations, and expe-
rience will confirm or correct their juvenile
theories. But if metaphysical books or dogmas
are forced upon children in the form of lessons,
they will as such be learned by rote and forgotten.
To prevent parents from expecting as much as
the abbe Condillac does from the comprehension
of pupils of six or seven years old upon abstract
subjects, and to enable preceptors to form some
idea of the perfect simplicity in which children,
unprejudiced upon metaphysical questions,
would express themselves, we give the fol-
lowing little dialogues, word for word,* as they
passed :

, 1780. Father. Where do you think?
A . (Six years and a half old.) In my

(Five years and a half old.) In my

Books. 461

Father. Where do you feel that you are glad,
or sorry ?

A In my stomach.

Ho . In my eyes.

Father. What are your senses for ?

Ho . To know things.

Without any previous conversation, Ho

(five years and a half old) said to her mother,
*' I think you will be glad my right foot is sore,
" because you told me I did not lean enough
" upon my left foot." This child seemed, on
many occasions, to have formed an accurate idea
of the use of punishment, considering it always
as pain given to cure us of some fault, or to pre-
vent us from suffering more pain in future.

April, 1792. H , a boy nine years and

three-quarters old, as he was hammering at a
work-bench, paused for a short time, and then
said to his sister, who was in the room with him,
" Sister, I pbserve that when I don't look at my
** right hand when I hammer, and only think
" where it ought to hit, I can hammer much
" better than when I look at it. I don't know
" what the reason of that is unless it is becausie
** I think in my head."

. Jf . I am not sure, but I believe that we

do think in our heads.

H . Then perhaps my head is divided

into two parts, and that one thinks for one arm,

46*2 Practical Education.

and one for the other ; so that when I want to
strike with my right arm, I think where I want
to hit the wood, and then, without looking at it,
I can move my arm in the right direction ; as
when my father is going to write, he sometimes
sketches it.

M . What da you mean, my dear, by

sketching it ?

H . Why, when he moves his hand (flou-
rishes) without touching the paper with the pen.
And at first, when I want to do any thing, I
cannot move my hand as I mean ; but after being
used to it, then I can do much better. I don't
know why.

After going on hammering for some time, he
stopped again, and said, ^^ There's another
" thing I wanted to tell you. Sometimes I
^' think to myself that it is right to think of
*' things that are sensible, and then when I
" want to set about thinking of things that are
*^ sensible, I can not ; I can only think of that
" over and over again."

M . You can only think of what ?

H . Of these words. They seem to be

said to me over and over again, till I am quite
tired, *' That it is right to think of things that
** have some sense."

The childish expressions in these remarks
have not beqn altered, because we wished ta

Books. 46a

show exactly how children at this age express
their thoughts. If M. Condillac had been
used to converse with children, be surely would
not have expected, that any boy of seven years
old could have understood his definition of
attention, and his metaphysical preliminary
lessons.

After these preliminary lessons, we have a
sketch of the prince of Parma's subsequent
studies. M. Condillac says, that his royal
highness (being not yet eight years old) was
now " perfectly well acquainted with the sys-
*^ tem of intellectual operations. He compre-
*^ bended already the production of his ideas ;
** he saw the origin and the progress of the ha-
" bits which he had contracted, and he per-
" ceived how he could substitute just ideas for
" the false ones which had been given to him, and
*^ good habits instead of the bad habits which
" he had been suffered to acquire. He had be-
" come so quickly familiar with all these things,^
" that he retraced their connexion without effort,
** quite playfully."*

* Motif des 6tudes qui ont ete faites apres les Le9oni
Pr^liminaires, p. 67.

Le jeune prince connoissoit deja le systeme des opera-
tions de son ame, il comprenoit la generation de ses ideed,
i\ voyoit I'origine et le progres des habitudes qu'il avoit
contract^efi, et il concevoit comment il pouvoit substituer

464 Practical Educatmu

This prince must have been a prodigy !
After having made him reflect upon his own
infancy, the abbe judged that the infancy of
the world would appear to his pupil " the
" most curious subject, and the most easy to
" study." The analogy between these two in-
fancies seems to exist chiefly in words ; it is not
easy to gratify a child's curiosity concerning
the infancy of the world. Extracts from
L'Origine des Loix, by M. Goguet, with ex-
planatory notes, were put into the prince's
hands, to inform him of what happened in the
commencement of society. These were his
evening studies. In the mornings he read the
French poets, Boileau, Moliere, Corneille, and
Racine. Racine, as we are particularly informed,
was, in the space of one year, read over a dozen
times. Wretched prince 1 Unfortunate Racine !
the abbe acknowledges, that at first these au-*
thors were not understood with the same ease
as the preliminary lessons had been : every word
stopped the prince, and it seemed as if every
line was written in an unknown language.

des idces justes aux idees fausses qu'on lui avoit donnees,
et de bonnes habitudes aux mauvaises qu'on lui avoit laisse
prendre. II s'etoit familiarise si promptement avec toutes
ces choses, qu*il s*en retra9oit la suite sans effort, ct comnne
en badinant.

Books. 465

This is not surprising, for how is it possible that
a boy of seven or eight years old, who could
know nothing of life and manners, could taste
the wit and humour of Moliere ; and incapa-
ble as he must have been of sympathy with the
violent passions of tragic heroes and heroines,
how could he admire the lofty dramas of Ra-
cine? We are willing to suppose, that the young
prince of Parma was quick and well informed
for his age ; but to judge of what is practicable,
we must produce examples from common life in-
stead of prodigies.

S , a boy of nine years old, of whose abi-
lities the reader will be able to form some
judgment from anecdotes in the following pages,
whose understanding was not wholly uncultivat-
ed, when he was between nine and ten years
old expressed a wish to read some of Shak-
speare's plays. King John was given to him.
After the book had been before him for one
winter's evening, he returned it to his father,
declaring that he did not understand one word
of the play; he could not make out what the
people were about, and he did not wish to read

any more of it. His brother H , at twelve

years old, had made an equally ineffectual at-
tempt to read Shakspeare ; he v*^as also equally
decided and honest in expressing his dislike to
it ; he was much surprised at seeing his sister

VOL. I. 2 H

466 Practical Education,

B , who was a year or two older than him-
self, reading Shakspeare with great avidity,
and he frequently asked what it was in that
book that could entertain her. Two years af-
terwards, when H was between fourteen

and fifteen, he made another trial, and he
found that he understood the language of Shak-
speare without any difficulty. He read all the
historical plays with the greatest eagerness, and
pai-ticularly seized the character of Falstaff.
He gave a humorous description of the figure
and dress which he supposed Sir John should
liave, of his manner of sitting, speaking, and
walking. Probably, if H had been press-
ed to read Shakspeare at the time when he
did not understand it, he might never have read
these plays with real pleasure during his whole
life. Two years increase prodigiously the vo-
cabulary and the ideas of young people ; and
preceptors should consider, that what we call
literary taste cannot be formed without a variety
of knowledge. The productions of our ablest
writers cannot please, till we are familiarised to
the ideas which th6y contain, or to which they
allude.

Poetry is usually supposed to be well suited
to the taste and capacity of children. In the
infancy of taste and of eloquence rhetorical
language is constantly admired : the bold express-

Books* 467

sion of strong feeling, and the simple description
of the beauties of nature^ are found to interest
both cultivated and uncultivated minds. To un-
derstand descriptive poetry no previous know-
ledge is required, beyond what common obser-
vation and sympathy supply ; the analogies and
transitions of thought are slight and obvious ;
no labour of attention is demanded, no active
effort of the mind is requisite to follow him.
The pleasures of simple sensation are by de-
scriptive poetry recalled to the imagination, and
we live over again our past lives without increas-
ing, and without desiring to increase, our stock
of knowledge. If these observations be just^
there must appear many reasons why even that
species of poetry, which they can understand,
should not be the early study of children ; from
time to time it may be an agreeable amusement^
but it should not become a part of their daily
occupations. We do not want to retrace per-
petually in their memories a few musical wbrds>
or a few simple sensations ; our object is to en-
large the sphere of our pupifs capacity, to
strengthen the habits of attention, and to exer-
cise all the powers of the mind. The inventive
and the reasoning faculties must be injured by
the repetition of vague expressions, and of exag-
gerated description, with which most poetry
abounds. Childhood is the season for observa-
2 H 2

468 Practical Education.

tion, and those who observe accurately will af-
terwards be able to describe accurately : but
those, who merely read descriptions, can pre-
sent us with nothing but the pictures of pictures.
We have reason to believe that children, who
have not been accustomed to read a vast deal of
poetry, are not for that reason less likely to
excel in poetic language. The reader will judge
from the following explanations of Gray's
Hymn to Adversity, that the boy to whom they
were addressed was not much accustomed to
read even the most popular English poetry ; yet
this is the same child who, a few months after-
wards, wrote the translation from Ovid of the
Cave of Sleep, and who gave the extempore
description of a Summer's Evening in tolerably
good language.

Jan. 1796. S (nine years old) learned

by heart the Hymn to Adversity. When he
came to repeat this poem, he did not repeat it
well, and he had it not perfectly by heart. His
father suspected that he did not understand it,
and he examined him with some care.

Father, ^' Purple tyrants." Why purple ?

S . Because purple is a colour some-
thing like red and black ; and tyrants look red
and black.

Father. No. Kings were formerly called ty-
rants, and they wore purple robes: the purple

Books. AQg

of the ancients is supposed to be not the colour
which we call purple, but that which we call
scarlet.

" When first thy sire to send on earth
" Virtue, his darling child, design'd,
** To thee he gave the heav'nly birth,
" And bade to form her infant mind.**

When S was asked who was meant in

these lines by " thy sire," he frowned terribly ;
but after some deliberation he discovered that
" thy sire " meant Jove, the father ; or sire of
Adversity : still he was extremely puzzled with
'' the heav'nly birth." First he thought, that
the heavenly birth was the birth of Adversity ;
but upon recollection the heavenly birth was
to be trusted to Adversity, therefore she could

not be trusted with the care of herself. S

at length discovered, that Jove must have had
two daughters, and he said he supposed that
Virtue must have been one of these daughters,
and that she must have been sister to Adversity,
who was to be her nurse, and who was to form
her infant mind : he now perceived that the
expression, " stern, rugged nurse," referred to
Adversity ; before this he said, he did not know
who it meant, whose " rigid lore " was alluded

4i0 Practical Education.

to in these two lines, or who bore it with pa-
tience.

f* Stern, rugged nurse, thy rigid lore
" With patience many a year she bore.

The following stanza S- repeated a second

timC;^ as if he did not understand it :

" Scared at thy frown, terrific fly

** Self-pleasing follies, idle brood,

" Wild laughter, noise, and thoughtless joy,

" And leave us leisure to be good.

f* Light they disperse, and with them go

** The summer friend, the flattering foe ;

" By vain prosperity received,

** To her they vow their truth, and are again beUev'd."

Father. Why does the poet say wild laugh-
ter?

S . It means, not reasonable.

Father. Why i§ it said,

O By vain prosperity receiv'd,

" To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd."

«S ■ Because the people, I suppose, when

they were in prosperity before, believed them be-
fore \ but I think that seems confused.

Book^, ATX

** Oh, gently on thy suppliant's head,

" Dread Goddess, lay thy chast'ning hand ! "

S did not seem to comprehend the first of

these two lines ; and upon cross-examination it ap-
peared that he did not know the meaning of the
word suppliant ; he thought it meant " a person
^' vjirho suppUes us."

" Not in thy Goi-gon terrors clad,
** Nor circled by the vengeful band,
" As by the impious thou art seen."

It may appear improbable, that a child who
did not know the meaning of the word suppliant,
should understand the Gorgon terrors, and the

vengeful band, yet it was so ; S understood

these lines distinctly ; he said, " Gorgon terrors,
" yes, like the head of Gorgon." He was at
this time translating from Ovid's Metamorpho-
ses; and it happened that his father had ex-
plained to him the ideas of the ancients
concerning the furies ; besides this, several
people in the family had been reading Potter's
iEschylus, and the furies had been the sub-
ject of conversation. From such accidental
circumstances as these children often appear,
in the same instant almost, to be extremely
quick, and extremely slow of comprehen-
3

472 Practical Education,

sion ; a preceptor, who is well acquainted with
all his pupil's previous knowledge, can rapidly
increase his stock of ideas by turning every acci-
dental circumstance to account : but if a tutor
persists in forcing a child to a regular course of
study, all his ideas must be collected, not as they
are wanted in conversation or in real life, but as
they are wanted to get through a lesson or a
book. It is not surprising, that M. Condillac
found such long explanations necessary for his
young pupil in reading the tragedies of Racine ;
he says, that he was frequently obliged to trans-
late the poetry into prose, and frequently the
prince could gather only some general idea of
the whole drama, without understanding the
parts. We cannot help regretting, that the
explanations have not been published for the
advantage of future preceptors ; they must have
been almost as difficult as those for the prelimi-
nary lessons. As we are convinced that the
art of education can be best improved by the
registering of early experiments, we are very
willing to expose such as have been made with-'
out fear of fastidious criticism or ridicule.

May 1st, 1796. A little poem called " The
^^ Tears of Old May Day," published in the se-
cond volume of the World, was read to S .

The preceding May-day the same poem had
be^p read to him ; he then liked it much, and

Books. 47 s

his father wished to see what effect it would
have upon this second reading. The pleasure

of novelty was worn off; but S felt new

pleasure from his having, during the last year,
acquired a great number of new ideas, and
especially some knowledge of ancient mythology,
which enabled him to understand several allu-
sions in the poem which had before been unintel-
ligible to him. He had become acquainted with
the muses, the graces, Cynthia, Philomel,
Astrea, who are all mentioned in this poem ; he
now knew something about the Hesperian fruit,
Amalthea's horn, choral dances, Lybian Ammon,
&c. which are also alluded to ; he remembered
the explanation which his father had given him
the preceding year of a line which alludes to the
island of Atalantis.

** Then vanished many a sea-girt isle and grove,
" Their forests floating on the watery plain ;

<* Then famed for arts, and laws derived from Jove,
My Atalantis sunk beneath the main.

S— •, whose imagination had been pleased
with the idea of the fabulous island of Atalantis,
recollected what he had heard of it ; but he
had forgotten the explanation of another stanza
of this poem, which he had heard at the same
time.

474 Practical Education,

" To her no more Augusta's wealthy pride
<* Pours the full tribute from Potosi's mine;

" Nor fresh-blown garlands village maids provide,
^^ A purer offering at her rustic shrine."

S-^ forgot that he had been told that London

was formerly called Augusta ; that Potosi's
mines contained silver ; and that pouring the
tribute from Potosi's mines alludes to the
custom of hanging silver tankards upon the May-
poles in London on May-day ; consequently
the beauty of this stanza was entirely lost upon
him. A few circumstances were now told to
S which imprinted the explanation effectual-
ly in his memory : his father told him that the
publicans^ or those who keep public-houses in
London, make it a custom to lend their silver
tankards to the poor chimney-sweepers and milk-
maids who go in procession through the streets on
May-day. The confidence that is put in the

honesty of these poor people pleased S , and

all these circumstances fixed the principal idea
more firmly in his mind.

The following lines could please him only by
their sound the first time he heard them :

** Ah \ once to fame and bright dominion born,
" The earth and smiling ocean saw me rise,

<• With time coeval, and the star of morn,
" The first, the fairest daughter of the skies.

Books. 475

'* Then when at heaven's prolific mandate sprung

" The radiant beam of new created day,
" Celestial harps, to airs of triumph strung,

*^ Hailed the glad dawn, and angels called me May.

" Space in her empty regions heard the sound,
<♦ And hills and dales, and rocks and valleys rung ;

^* The sun exulted in his glories round,

** And shouting planets in their courses sung."

The idea which the ancients had of the music
of the spheres was here explained to S— •, and
some general notion was given to him of the
harmonic numbers.

What a number of new ideas this little poem
served to introduce into the mind ! these expla-
nations being given precisely at the time when
they were wanted, fixed the ideas in the
memory in their proper places, and associated
knowledge with the pleasures of poetry. Some
of the effect of a poem must, it is true, be lost by
interruptions and explanations; but we must
consider the general improvement of the under
standing, and not merely the cultivation of poe-
tic taste. In the instance which we have just
given, the pleasure which the boy received from
the poem seemed to increase in proportion to
the exactness with which it was explained. The
succeeding year, on May-day 1797, the same
poem was read to him for the third time, and be

476 Practical Education.

appeared to like it better than he had done
upon the first reading. If, instead of perusing
Racine twelve times in one year, the young
prince of Parma had read any one play or
scene at different periods of his education, and
had been led to observe the increase of pleasure
Vv^hich he felt from being able to understand
what he read better each succeeding time, he
would probably have improved more rapidly
in his taste for poetry, though he might not have
known Racine by rote quite so early as at eight
years old.

We considered parents almost as much as
children, when we advised that a great deal of
poetry should not be read by very young pupils ;
the labour and difficulty of explaining it can be
known only to those who have tried the experi-
ment. The Elegy in a Country Church-yard
is one of the most popular poems, which is usually
given to children to learn by heart; it cost
at least a quarter of an hour to explain to in-
telligent children, the youngest of whom was
at the time nine years old, the first stanza of that
elegy. And we have heard it asserted by a
gentleman not unacquainted with literature,
that perfectly to understand TAllegro and II
Penseroso, requires no inconsiderable portion of
ancient and modern knowledge. It employed
several hours, on different days, to read and

Books. 477

explain Comus so as to make it intelligible
to a boy of ten years, who gave his utmost atten-
tion to it. The explanations on this poem were
found to be so nunierous and intricate, that we
thought it best not to produce them here. Ex-
planations which are given by a reader can be
given with greater rapidity and effect, than any
which a writer can give to children : the expres-
sion of the countenance is advantageous ; the
sprightliness of conversation keeps the pupils
awake ; and the connexion of the parts of the
subject can be carried on better in speaking and
reading, than it can be in written explanations.
Notes are almost always too formal, or too
obscure ; they explain what was understood more
plainly before any illustration was attempted, or
they leave us in the dark the moment we want
to be enlightened. Wherever parents or pre-
ceptors can supply the place of notes and com-
mentators, they need not think their time ill be-
stowed. If they cannot undertake these trou-
blesome explanations, they can surely reserve
obscure poems for a later period of their pupil's
education. Children, who are taught at seven
or eight years old to repeat poetry, frequently
get beautiful lines by rote, and speak them flu-
ently, without in the least understanding the
meaning of the lines. The business of a poet is
to please the imagination, and to move the pas-

1

478 Practical Education.

sions : in proportion as his language is sublime
or pathetic, witty or satirical, it must be unfit for
children. Knowledge cannot be detailed, or
accurately explained in poetry; the beauty of
an allusion depends frequently upon the elliptical
mode of expression, which passing imperceptibly
over all the intermediate links in our associations,
is apparent only when it touches the ends of the
chain. Those who wish to instruct must pursue
the opposite system.

In Dr. Wilkins's essay on Universal Language^
he proposes to introduce a note similar to the
common note of admiration, to give the reader
notice when any expression is used in an ironical
or in a metaphoric sense. Such a note would
be of great advantage to children : in reading
poetry they are continually puzzled between the
obvious and the metaphoric sense of the words.*

The desire to make children learn a vast deal of
poetry by heart, fortunately for the understand-
ing of the rising generation, does not rage with
such violence as formerly. Dr. Johnson success-*
fully laughed at infants lisping out, " Angels
" and ministers of grace defend us ! " His re-

♦ In Dr. Franklin's posthumous Essays, there is an excellent
remark Mrith respect to typography as concerned with the art
of reading, the note of interrogation should be placed at the
beginning as well as at the end of a question ; it is sometimes
so far distant as to be out of the reach of an unpractised eye.

Books. 47^

pr©of was rather ill-natured, when he begged
two children who were produced, to repeat some
lines to him — " Can't the pretty dears repeat
^^ them both together ? But this reproof has
probably prevented many exhibitions of the same
kind.

^ome people learn poetry by heart for the plea-
sure of quoting it in conversation ; but the talent
for quotation, both in conversation and in writ-
ing, is now become so common, that it cannot
confer immortality.* Every person has by rote
certain passages from Shakspeare and Thomson,
Goldsmith and Gray ; these trite quotatioas fa-
tigue the literary ear, and disgust the taste of the
public. To this change in the fashion of the
day, those who are much influenced by fashion
will probably listen with more eagerness than to
all the reasons that have been offered. But to
return to the prince of Parma. After reading
Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Boileau, &c. the
young prince's taste was formed, as we are as-
sured by his preceptor, and he was now fit for
the study of grammar. So much is due to the
benevolent intentions of a man of learning and
genius, who submits to the drudgery of writing
an elementary book on grammar, that even a
critic must feel unwilling to examine it with se-

* Young,

480 Practical Education.

verity. M. Condillac, in his attempt to write a
rational grammar, has produced, if not a grammar
fit for children, a philosophical treatise, which a
well-educated young person will read with great
advantage at the age of seventeen or eighteen.
All that is said of the natural language of signs,
of the language of action, of pantomimes, and of
the institutions of M. TAbbe TEpee for teaching
languages to the deaf and dumb, is not only amus-
ing and instructive to general readers, but with
slight alterations in the language.might.be per-
-fectly adapted to the capacity of children. But
wh^m ,the Abbe Condillac goes on to " Your
" Highness fnows what is meant by a system," he
immediately forgets his pupil's age. The reader's
attention is presently engaged by an abstract dis-
quisition on the. relative proportion, represented
by various circles of different extent ; of the wants,
ideas, and language of savages, shepherds, com-
mercial and polished nations ; when he is sudden-
ly wakened to the recollection, that all this is ad-
dressed to a child of eight years old ; an allusion
to the prince's little chair completely rouses us
from our reverie.

*^ As your little chair is made in the same
" form as mine, which is higher, so the system
" of ideas is fundamentally the same amongst
'' savage and civilized nations ; it differs only in
" degrees of extension, as after one and the same

Booksp 481

** model seats of dififerent heights have been
« made"*

Such mistakes as these, in a work intended for
a child, are so obvious, that they could not have
escaped the pcnetrati^ of a great man, had he
known as much of the practice as he did of the
theory of the art of teaching.

To analyse a thought, and to show the con-
struction of language, M, Condillac,'f- in this
volume on grammar, has chosen for an example
a passage from an iloge on Peter Corneille, pro-
nounced before the French Academy by Racine,
on the reception of Thomas Corneille, who suc-
ceeded to Peter. It is in the French style of
academical panegyric, a representation of the
chaotic state in - which Corneille found the
French theatre, and of the light and order which
he diffused through the dramatic world by his
creative genius. A subject less interesting, or
more unintelligible to a child, could scarcely
have been selected. The lecture on the ana-

♦ Comme votre petite chaise est faite sur le m^rne moddle
que la mienne qui est plus elevee, ainsi le systeme des idees
est le meme pour le fond chez les peuples sauvages et chez les
peuples civilises, il ne difFere, que parce qu'il est plus ou raoins
etendu ; c*est un raeme model e d'apres lequel on a fait d9$
sieges de differente hauteur,* Grammaire, page 23-

f Condillac. Grammaire, p. S^*
VOL. r. 2 1

482 Practical Educatmi.

tomy of Racine's thought lasts through fifteen
pages ; according to all the rules of art the dis-
section is ably performed, but most children will
turn from the operation with disgust.
-vThe Abbe Condillac's treatise on the art of
writing immediately succeeds to his grammar:
the examples in this volume are much better
chosen ; they are interesting to all readers ; those
especially from Madame de Sevigne's letters,
which are drawn from familiar language and do-
mestic life. The enumeration of the figures of
speech, and the classification of the flowers of
rhetoric are judiciously suppressed ; the cata-
logue of the different sorts of turns y phrases pro-
per for maxims and principles, turns proper for
sentiment, ingenuous turns and quaint turns, stiff
turns and easy turns, might perhaps have be6n
somewhat abridged. The observations on the
effect of unity in the whole design, and in all
the subordinate parts of a work, though they may
not be new, are ably stated ; and the remark,
that the utmost propriety of language, and the
strongest effect of eloquence and reasoning, re-
sult, from the greatest possible attention to the
connexion of our ideas, is impressed forcibly
upon the reader throughout this work.

How far works of criticism in general are
•uited to children, remains to be considered.

Books. 483

Such works cannot probably suit their taste,
because the taste for systematic criticism cannot
arise in the mind till many books have been
read, till the various species of excellence suited
to different sorts of composition have been per-
ceived, and till the mind has made some choice
of its own. It is true, that works of criticism
may teach children to talk well of what they
read ; they will be enabled to repeat what good
judges have said of books. But this is not, or
ought not to be the object. After having been
thus officiously assisted by a connoisseur, who
points out to them the beauties of authors, will
they be able afterwards to discover beauties with-
out his 'assistance ? Or have they as much plea-
sure in being told what to admire, what to praise,
and what to blame, as if they had been suffered
to feel and to express their own feelings natural-
ly ? In reading an interesting play or beautiful
poem, how often has a man of taste and genius
execrated the impertinent commentator, who
interrupts him by obtruding his ostentatious
notes. " The reader will observe the beauty of
" this thought." '^ This is one of the finest pas-
*' sages in any author ancient or modern." " The
'* sense of this line, which all former annotators
" have mistaken, is obviou&ly restored by the
" addition of the vowel i," &G.

Deprived by these anticipating explanations
2 I 2

484 Practical Education.

of the use of his own common sense, the reader
detests the critic, soon learns to disregard his
references; and to skip over his learned truisms.
Similar sensations, tempered by duty or by fear,
may have been sometimes experienced by a viva-
cious child, who, eager to go on with what he is
reading, is prevented from feeling the effect of
the whole by a premature discussion of its parts.
We hope that no keen hunter of paradoxes will
here exult in having detected us in a contradic-
tion : we are perfectly aware, that but a few
pages ago we exhibited examples of detailed ex-
planations of poetry for children ; but these ex-
planations were not of the criticising class, they
were not designed to tell young people what to
admire, but simply to assist them to understand
before they ad mi red-
Works of criticism are sometimes given to
pupils^ with the idea that they will instruct and
form them in the art of writing ; but few things
can be more terrific or dangerous to the young
writer, than the voice of relentless criticism.
Hope stimulates, but fear depresses the active
power of the mind ; and how much have they
to fear, who have continually before their eyes
the mistakes and disgrace of others ; of others,
who with superior talents have attempted and
failed ! With a multitude of precepts and rules
of rhetoric full in their memory, they cannot

Books* 495

express the simplest of their thoughts ; and to
write a sentence composed of members, which
have each of them names of many syllables, must
appear a most formidable and presumptuous un-
dertaking. On the contrary, a child who, in
books and in conversation, has been used to hear
and to speak correct language, and who has never
been terrified with the idea, that to write is to
express his thoughts in some new and extraor-
dinary manner, will naturally write as he speaks
and as he thinks. Making certain characters
upon paper, to represent to others what he
wishes to say* to them, will not appear to him
a matter of dread and danger, but of convenience
and amusement, and he will write prose without
knowing it.

Amongst some *' practical essays," -{^ lately
published, " to assist the exertions of youth in
** their literary pursuits," there is an essay on
letter-writing, which might deter a timid child
from ever undertaking such an arduous task as
that of writing a letter. So much is said from
Blair, from Cicero, from Quintilian ; so many
things are requisite in a letter; purity, neatness,
simplicity ; such caution must be used to avoid
" exotics transplanted from foreign languages,
^* or raised in the hot-beds of afiectation and

* Rouweau. f Milne's Well-bred Scholar,

486 Practical Education.

^^ conceit ; " such attention to the mother tongue
is prescribed ; that the young nerves of the let-
ter-writer must tremble when he takes up his
pen. Besides, he is told that " he should be
" extremely reserved on the head of pleasantry,"
and that ** as to sallies of wit, it is still more
" dangerous to let them fly at random ; but he
^^ may repeat the smart sayings of others if he
" will, or relate part of some droll adventure to
" enliven his letter."

The anxiety that parents and tutors frequently
express, to have their children write letters, and
good letters, often prevents the pupils from writ-
ing during the whole course of their lives. Let-
ter-writing becomes a task, and an evil to chil-
dren : whether they have any thing to say or not,
write they must, this post or next, without fail,
a pretty letter to some relation or friend, who has
exacted from them the awful promise of punctual
correspondence. It is no wonder that school-
boys and school-girls, in these circumstances,
feel that necessity is not the mother of invention ;
they are reduced to the humiliating misery of
begging from some old practitioner a beginning
or an ending, and something to say to fill up the
middle.

Locke humourously describes the misery of a
school-boy who is to write a theme ; and having
nothing to say, goes about with the usual peti-

6

Books. 487

tion in these cases to his companions : " Pray
*^ give me a little sense." Would it not be bet-
ter to wait till children have sense, before we
exact from them themes and discourses upon li-
terary subjects ? There is no danger, that those
who acquire a variety of knowledge and nume-
rous ideas should not be able to find words to
express them ; but those who are compelled to
find words before they have ideas are in a melan-
choly situation. To form a style is but a vague
idea : practice in composition will certainly con-
fer ease in writing upon those who write when
their minds are full of ideas ; but the practice of
sitting with a melancholy face, with pen in hand,
waiting for inspiration, will not much advance
the pupil in the art of writing. We should not
recommend it to a preceptor to require regular
themes at stated periods from his pupils ; but
whenever he perceives that a young man is
struck with any new ideas or new circumstances,
when he is certain that his pupil has acquired a
fund of knowledge, when he finds in conversa-
tion that words flow readily upon certain sub-
jects, he may without danger upon these sub-
jects excite his pupil to try his powers of writing.
These trials need not be frequently made ; when
a young man has once acquired confidence in
himself as a writer, he will certainly use his

488 Practical Education.

talent whenever proper occasions present them-
selves. The perusal of the best authors in the
Enghsh language will give him, if he adhere to
these alone, sufficient powers of expression. The
best authors in the English language are so well
known, that it would be useless to enumerate
them. Dr. Johnson says, that whoever would
acquire a pure English style, must give his days
and nights to Addison. We do not, however
feel this exclusive preference for Addison's me-
lodious periods : his page is ever elegant, but
sometimes it is too diffuse. Hume, Blackstone,
and Smith, have a proper degree of strength and
energy combined with their elegance. Gibbon
says, that the perfect composition and well-
turned periods of Dw Robertson excited his
hopes, that he might one day become his equ^l
in writing ; but " the calm philosophy, the care-
*' less, inimitable beauties of my friend and rival
*^ Hume, often forced me to close the volume
^' with a mixed sensation of delight and despair."
From this testimony we may judge, that a simple
style appears to the best judges to be more difficult
to attain, and more desirable, than tliat highly
ornamented diction to which writers of inferior
taste aspire. Gibbon tells us, with great can-
dour, that his friend Hume advised him to be-
ware of the rhetorical style of French eloquence.

Books. 489

Hume observed that the English language and
English taste do not admit of this profusion of
ornament.

Without meaning to enter at large into the
subject, we have offered these remarks upon
style for the advantage of those who are to direct
the taste of young readers ; what they admire
when they read, they will probably imitate when
they write. We objected to works of criticism
for young children, but we should observe, that
at a later period of education they will be found
highly advantageous. It would be absurd to
mark the precise age at which Blair's Lectures,
or Condillac's Art d'Ecrire, ought to be read, be-
cause this should be decided by circumstances,
by the progress of the pupils in literature, and
by the subjects to which their attention happens
to have turned. Of these, preceptors and the
pupils themselves must be the most competent
judges. From the same wish to avoid all pedan-
tic attempts to dictate, we have not given any
regular course of study in this chapter. Many
able writers have laid down extensive plans of
study, and have named the books that are essen-
tial to the acquisition of different branches of
knowledge. Amongst others we may refer to
Dr. Priestley's, which is to be seen at the end of
his Essays on Education. We are sensible that
order is necessary in reading, but we cannot

2

490 Practical Education,

think that the same order will suit all minds,
nor do we imagine that a young person cannot
read to advantage unless he pursue a given
course of study. Men of sense will not be into-
lerant in their love of learned order.

If parents would keep an accurate list of the
books which their children read, and of the ages
at which they are read, it would be of essential
service in improving the art of education. We
might then mark the progress of the understand-
ing with accuracy, and discover, with some de-
gree of certainty, the circumstance on which
the formation of the character and taste depend.
Swift has given us a list of the books which he
read during two years of his life ; we can trace
the ideas that he acquired from them in his La-
puta, and in other parts of Gulliver's Travels.
Gibbon's Journal of his studies, and his Account
of Universities, are very instructive to young stu-
dents. 80 is the Life of Franklin written by him-
self. Madame Roland has left a history of her
education ; and in the books she read in her early
years we see the formation of her character.
Plutarch's Lives, she tells us, first kindled re-
publican enthusiasm in her mind ; and she re-
grets that, in forming her ideas of universal liber-
ty, she had only a partial view of affairs. She
corrected these enthusiastic ideas during the last
moments of her life in prison. Had the impresr

Books. 491

sion which her study of the Roman History made
upon her mind being known to an able preceptor,
it might have been corrected in her early educa-
tion. When she was led to execution, she ex-
claimed, as she passed the statue of Liberty,
*^ Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy
" name!"*

Formerly it was wisely said, " Tell me what
^^ company a man keeps, and I will tell you
'^ what he is;" but since literature has spread
a new inflence over the world, we must add,
" Tell me what company a man has kept, and
*^ what books he has read, and I will tell you
'' what he is."

* ** Oh Liberte, que de forfaits on commet en ton nom ! '*
. V. Appel a PImpartielle Posterite.

END OF VOL. I,

C. Baldwin, Printer,

Hew Bridge-street, London.

Correct List of Mr. and Miss Edgetvorth*s Works published bi/
R, Hunter J Successor to J, Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-
yard ; and by Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, Paternoster
ilou),

Kational Primer, by Mr. Edgeworth.

Early Lessons for Children, in 2 vols.

Continuation of Early Lessons, in 2 vols.

Parent's Assistant; or, Stories for Children, 6 vols.

Poetry Explained, for the use of Young People, by Mr.
Edgeworth,

Essays on Practical Education, by Mr. and Miss
Edgeworth, 2 vols.

Essays on Professional Education, by Mr. Edgewortlv

Letters for Literary Ladies.

Castle Rackrent, an Hibernian Tale.

Essay on Irish Bulls, by Mr. and Miss Edgeworth.

Moral Tales, 3 vols.

Belinda, 3 vols.

Leonora, 2 vols.

The Modern Griselda.

Popular Tales, 3 vols.

Tales of Fashionable Life, 6 vols.

Patronage, 4 vols.

Essays on the Construction of Roads at^ Car-
riages, by Mr. Edgeworth.

pamphlets.

Letter to Lord Charlemont on the Telegraph,

by Mr. Edgeworth.
Mr. Edgeworth's Speeches in Parliament.

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