Sect. 2. If you be ever obliged to have a hard lesson said to you, busy yourself in writing letters, or take an occasional nap; the boys will be glad of it, and it may prevent their accusing you of ignorance.
Sect. 3. Never explain a passage in a difficult author; your scholars will hereafter have a greater pleasure in making the discovery themselves.
Sect. 4. If you ever condescend to hear your head boys tell them of it; it will make them get their lesson the better, and thereby give you less trouble. If they happen to meet with a ne plus ultra, abuse them, and send them back; if they grumble, flagellation is necessary.
Sect. 5. If you see a boy sent back by an usher, and the boy cries, call him, unseen by the usher, hear him, and let it pass; it will please the boy mightily.
Sect. 6. Never let your boys get too forward; the longer they stay, the longer they pay. I have known a dozen boys of six years standing in an academy, who neither knew the declension or conjugations of their accidence, their multiplication or pence table, or any thing else besides, which they had been sent to learn, and for the learning of which, some of them to my certain knowledge had paid upwards of three hundred pounds. What then? the boys are rather slow, and require time; or a little idle, and will, it is hoped, grow more thoughtful as they grow up; or your ushers have neglected their duty; and you have therefore thought it necessary to change them.
Sect. 7. In all kinds of Latin or Greek exercises it is best to mark the faults, and let the boys mend them, it puts them on enquiring into the exact meaning of the words they use, and will make them more careful of committing blunders.
Sect. 8. If your highest attainments be only some small smattering in the English language, and the command of the pen, it were to be wished you could impress upon the boys a higher opinion of you than you deserve: and, for this purpose, I know nothing better than to inform yourself of the merit of the different authors of the learned languages. Declaim on this subject to your boys, and order all their exercises to be publickly submitted to your inspection regularly every evening. This was an infallible rule with our friend Gerundivy Leech, and he acquired an easy fortune, has taken out his Dedimus for the county of Wilts, and lives in great repute.
Sect. 9. If you are a Dissenter, or a Roman Catholic, you will not fail to make the young gentlemen committed to your care, sensible of the truth of your particular tenets; it will prevent their being bigots.
CHAP. VII.