FOOTNOTES:
... Memini quæ plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium dictare.—Lib. II. Ep. i. v. 70.
[25] ... “Jam si minor in diligendis custodum & præceptorum moribus fuit cura, pudet dicere in qua proba nefandi homines isto jure cædendi abutantur; non morabor in parte hac, nimium est quod intelligitur.”—Institut. Orat. Lib. I. Cap. 3.
[26] “Denudari deindè, Ludi-magistrum jussit, eumque pueris tradidit reducendum Falerios, manibus post tergum illigatis; virgas quoque eis dedit, quibus proditorem agerent in urbem verberantes.”
The inhabitants of Falerii were so struck with the just conduct of the Dictator (Livy adds) that a total change of their dispositions towards the Romans was the consequence; and the Senate having been assembled thereupon by the Magistrates, they came to the resolution of opening their gates, and surrendering to the Romans; which was soon after effected.
[27] From the above-mentioned passages of king Solomon, Livy, and other antient authors, down to Petrarch, we may safely conclude that the practice of flagellating children has been followed in the world during a number of successive centuries; and we know from undoubted authorities, that the same practice continues in our days to prevail, especially among Schoolmasters. Nay more, very respectable Writers inform us, that Schoolmasters still possess the same strong inclination to exert their authority that way, as they did in the times of Horace and Quintilian.
Thus, Mr. Henry Fielding, a Writer who, better than most others, knew the manners of Men, in his History of a Foundling, represents Thwackum the Schoolmaster, as having, upon every occasion, recourse to his rod, and describes him to us as a true successor of the plagosus Orbilius.
Mr. Gay, another writer, who, too, was deeply versed in the knowledge of Mankind, expresses himself with still more precision on that head, and lays it down as an undoubted maxim, that the delight of a Schoolmaster is to use his whip. The opinion of that Author on the subject is contained in a song written by him: this song was composed in honour of Molly Mog, an Innkeeper’s daughter, at Oakingham in Berkshire: the verses are fifteen in all; and the name of Molly Mog is to be found in each of them, with a rhyme to it.
The School-boy’s desire is a play-day,
The Schoolmaster’s joy is to flog,
The milk-maid’s delights are on May-day;
But mine are in sweet Molly Mog.
However, the researches of our Author on the present deep subject, as well as mine in my humble capacity of Commentator, can bear no comparison, I think, in point of sagaciousness, with the discovery made by Thomas Perez, the Uncle of Diego, who relates his own history in the third volume of the Adventures of Gil Blas, and who takes that occasion to mention the great abilities of his Uncle as an Antiquary. “If it had not been for him (says he) we should still be ignorant that children, in Athens, cried when their Mothers whipped them.”