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THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF
RICHARD MULCASTER

PUBLISHED BY

JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW,

Publishers to the University.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.

MCMIII.

THE

EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS

OF

RICHARD MULCASTER

(1532–1611)

ABRIDGED AND ARRANGED, WITH A CRITICAL ESTIMATE

BY

JAMES OLIPHANT, M.A., F.R.S.E.

AUTHOR OF “VICTORIAN NOVELISTS,” ETC.

GLASGOW

JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS

Publishers to the University

1903

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY
ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO.

TO MY SISTER

AMY M. SMITH

PREFACE.

Some apology is needed for the presentation of an Elizabethan writer to English readers in any form but that of the original text. The justification of the present volume must lie in the fact that in the three centuries and more that have elapsed since the educational writings of Richard Mulcaster were given to the world, they have entirely failed to gain acceptance as literature. This neglect of one of our most interesting and important educationists is no doubt chiefly to be regarded as part of the general indifference which until recently the British public has consistently shown to all discussion of educational problems, but when we consider the reputation of Mulcaster’s contemporary, Roger Ascham, who had far less to say, but knew how to say it with lucidity and grace, we are constrained to admit that Mulcaster has lost his opportunity of catching the world’s ear, and that if his writings are to be known and appreciated as they deserve by this generation, it must be rather for their substance than for their literary style. It is true that the serious student may now be trusted to investigate for himself the thoughts of earlier authors in spite of difficulties of form and expression, but the general reader will expect more help than, in the case of Mulcaster at least, is at present available. The earlier of his two chief works, the Positions, published in 1581, was out of print for 300 years, until the issue in 1888 of an almost facsimile edition by the late Mr. Quick, to whom the credit of discovering this author is mainly due, while the second work, the Elementarie, has never been reprinted at all. It is safe to assume that not many readers will care to possess themselves of the somewhat expensive reprint of the former work, or to institute a search for one of the rare copies of the original and only edition of the latter. And if these books were to be made more accessible, it seemed worth while at the same time to present them in such a form that they should be readily intelligible to the ordinary reader. In the case of an acknowledged literary classic it may be inadmissible to tamper even with the type and spelling, far more with the phraseology and arrangement of sentences, but such scruples would be out of place with the author now in question. An attempt has been made to remove all gratuitous hindrances to a full understanding of the author’s meaning, while omitting nothing that is at once characteristic and significant. It is hoped that in the process of adaptation as little as possible has been lost of the quaint flavour of the original, and of the gifts of expression that Mulcaster undoubtedly possessed, however much these were obscured by the euphuistic tendency and the somewhat laboured construction that marked the prose of his time.

J. O.

CONTENTS.

[BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.]

Richard Mulcaster came of a border family that could trace its descent back to the eleventh century. On his wife’s tomb he describes himself as “by ancient parentage and lineal descent, an esquire born,” and there is evidence that some of his ancestors held positions of importance, both administrative and academic. In the fourteenth century we hear of a Richard de Molcastre, who, as the second son, inherited from his father, Sir William, the estates of Brakenhill and Solport, and the family retained its consideration up to our own time. But in the reign of Elizabeth the ancestral lands were no longer in the possession of the branch to which our author belonged. He was probably born in the border district, and the date of his birth must have been about 1532. He was sent to Eton, then under Nicholas Udall, who as a headmaster was known alike for his learning and his severity, and who as the writer of the first regular English comedy, may have given Mulcaster his taste for the drama. In 1548 he went to Cambridge as a King’s Scholar, but in 1555 we hear of his election as a Student of Christchurch, Oxford. In the following year he was “licensed to proceed in Arts.” He had a reputation for a knowledge of Hebrew as well as of Latin and Greek, and seems shortly afterwards to have chosen the profession of a schoolmaster, making his way to London about 1558 or 1559.

In 1560 the Guild of Merchant Taylors decided to establish the well-known day Grammar School for boys which still bears their name, and in the following year Mulcaster was appointed the first headmaster, having charge of two hundred and fifty scholars, with the assistance of three undermasters. The school hours were from 7 to 11 a.m. and from 1 to 5 p.m., with one half holiday in the week, besides the ordinary church festival days, and for this the headmaster received the salary of £10 (equivalent to £80 or £100 now), besides a dwelling in the school and a small sum from entrance fees. He was granted twenty days’ leave of absence in the year, but was not allowed to hold any other office, though his appointment was only held from year to year.

The reputation Mulcaster had already gained as a teacher before his appointment is shown in the fact that the post was offered to him without his application, and that he accepted it only after some hesitation, when he was promised an additional £10 of salary, on the private and personal guarantee of one of the Governors. He held the position for twenty-five years, and his successful conduct of the school is fully attested by the verdict of eminent scholars who acted as examiners, by the expressions of satisfaction in the minutes of the Council, and by the testimony of the pupils themselves, many of whom attained distinction in after-life.

Of Mulcaster’s scholars at Merchant Taylors’ School the most famous was Edmund Spenser, but in the absence of any reference to his teacher by the poet, we have to be content with the direct evidence of Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester, and Sir James Whitelock, Justice of the King’s Bench. Of the former it is recorded that he “ever loved and honoured” his former headmaster, befriending him and his son after him, and keeping his portrait over the door of his study. The latter tells us that Mulcaster besides instructing him well in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, was careful to increase his skill in music, and chose him to act with other scholars in the plays he presented at Court, by which means the boys were taught good manners and self-confidence. The account of him in Fuller’s Worthies may perhaps represent the impressions of less gifted scholars—“Atropos might be persuaded to pity, as soon as he to pardon, where he found just fault. The prayers of cockering mothers prevailed with him as much as the requests of indulgent fathers, rather increasing than mitigating his severity on their offending child.... Others have taught as much learning with fewer lashes, yet his sharpness was the better endured, because impartial, and many excellent scholars were bred under him.”

But while Mulcaster was building up securely the reputation of the school, his own position was not always comfortable, and in the end the friction between himself and the governing body became so great that he felt constrained to resign the headmastership. This was no doubt partly due to his own somewhat hasty and masterful temper, for on one occasion at least it is recorded in the minutes of the Council that he had made open apology for things said and done in anger, but there were more lasting causes of dispute. After the first eight years the promised supplement to his official income was no longer forthcoming, apparently owing to the declining circumstances of the member of the Council who had contributed it, and Mulcaster having on the strength of this extra sum increased the salary of his first assistant, conceived that he was entitled to its continuance from the Company. There were besides disputes between the Council and the authorities of St. John’s College, Oxford, where its founder, a member of the Guild, had reserved certain free places for orphans coming from the school, and in these Mulcaster was involved. While the Council seems to have acted throughout within its rights, and in the end showed a desire to deal even generously with its headmaster, it is easy to understand the difficulties of the situation, especially to a man like Mulcaster, whose natural impatience of control would not be diminished by his evident sense that in birth as well as in learning he was above his official superiors. So necessary did he feel it to regain his freedom that in 1586 he tendered his resignation, without apparently having any definite prospect of other work.

During the next ten years scarcely anything is known of Mulcaster’s life, except that he was in straitened circumstances. By 1588 his claim on the Merchant Taylors’ Guild had been adjusted by a compromise, and friendly relations must have been restored, for we find him acting as examiner to the School in that year. For part of this time at least he was out of London, for he seems to have been for a year vicar of Cranbrook in Kent, and he was afterwards granted by the Queen the prebend of Yatesbury, in the diocese of Salisbury.

In 1596 came a return of prosperity in a settled position. The headmaster of St. Paul’s School, which had been founded at the beginning of the century by John Colet, and bequeathed by him to the management of the Silk Mercers’ Guild, had resigned his post, as a result of similar differences with the governing body to those which occurred in the Merchant Taylors’ School, and Mulcaster, whatever misgivings he may have had, had learned enough from his recent experience not to decline the vacant office when it was offered to him. He was already in his sixty-fourth year when he received the appointment, and he continued to hold it till he was seventy-six. The conditions were much the same as those under which he had formerly worked, the statutes of St. Paul’s School having indeed served as a model to the later foundation, but the number of scholars was limited to 153, and the salary of the headmaster was £36 (equal to about £300 now), in addition to a residence in the school. In 1602 the salaries of all the teachers were doubled, in recompense for certain restrictions imposed by a new set of regulations, and when Mulcaster resigned his position in 1608, presumably on account of failing strength, he received a yearly pension of £66 3s. 4d. until his death three years later. There is little to record of his labours during his twelve years’ service at St. Paul’s School, the only outstanding event being in connection with the accession of James I. in 1603. It was the privilege of his scholars to welcome the Sovereign to the capital, and we read that on this occasion a Latin speech, prepared by the headmaster, was delivered by one of the scholars at the door of the School.

It is painful to learn that the closing years of Mulcaster’s life were clouded by distressing poverty. Nor is this easy to understand, for besides his pension, he was not without resources. He had some time before been granted by Queen Elizabeth the living of Stanford Rivers in Essex, but had been precluded from entering on it while he remained at St. Paul’s School. On his retirement from the headmastership he took up the duties of his country charge, notwithstanding his advanced age, though without striking success, according to Fuller’s account: “I have heard from those who have heard him preach that his sermons were not excellent, which to me seems no wonder, partly because there is a different discipline in teaching children and men, partly because such who make divinity not the choice of their youth but the refuge of their age seldom attain to eminency therein.” In spite of these two sources of income we find Mulcaster in 1609 making a pitiful but unsuccessful appeal to his old patrons, the Merchant Taylors, and when he died two years later he left his son burdened with debts, from which he was only relieved by the aid of some of his father’s former scholars, and of the two Guilds under which he had served. His wife had died two years before him, after fifty years of wedded life, and her virtues are recorded in a commemorative tablet.

Mulcaster’s educational writings were produced towards the close of the period spent at Merchant Taylors’ School, the Positions appearing in 1581, and the First Part of the Elementarie in 1582. The completion of the latter, and the further works promised on higher education, were never accomplished. He also wrote numerous Latin verses, including an address to Queen Elizabeth at the Kenilworth pageant of 1575, and a catechism, also in Latin, for the use of his pupils at St. Paul’s School, while he is mentioned as the author of a work entitled Cato Christianus, which has not come down to us.

All the sources of information regarding Mulcaster’s life and writings have been collected and compared with exhaustive industry by Dr. Theodor Klähr in a pamphlet entitled Leben und Werke Richard Mulcaster’s (Dresden, 1893).

[THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF
RICHARD MULCASTER]

The Method of Treatment.

Whosoever shall consider carefully the manner of bringing up children which is in general favour within this realm, cannot but agree with me in wishing that it were improved. I do not think it well, however, in this place to lay bare its special defects, because I am in hope of seeing them healed without so strong a measure. If I should seek to expose all the inconveniences which are experienced between parents and schoolmasters, and between teachers and learners; if I should refer to all the difficulties through which the education and upbringing of children is seriously impaired, I might revive causes of annoyance, and thereby make the evils worse. And even though I were to remedy them, the patient might bear in mind how churlishly he was cured, and though he should pay well for the healing, he might be ill-satisfied with the treatment. Wherefore in mending things that are amiss, I take that to be the most advisable way which saveth the man without making the means unpleasant. If without entering into controversies I set down what seems to me on reasonable grounds to be the right course as being not only the best, but most within compass, the wrong course will forthwith show itself by comparison, and will thus receive a check without any need for fault-finding.

The Purpose of Writing.

I have taught in public now without interruption for two-and-twenty years, and have always had a very great charge committed to my hands, my fulfilment of which I leave to an impartial judgment. During this time, both through what I have seen in teaching so long, and what I have tried in training up so many, I well perceive that, with the disadvantages which myself and other teachers have been subject to, none of us have been able to do as much as we might. I believe I have not only learned what these disadvantages are, but have discerned how they may be removed, so that I and all others may be able to do much more good than heretofore. And as I write for the common good I appeal to the reader’s courtesy to give me credit for good intentions, though my hopes should not be realised. For I am only doing what is open to all, namely, to give public utterance to my personal convictions, and to claim indulgence for what is intended for the general good. As I am myself ready to give favourable consideration to others who do the same, I expect any who make use of my work to their own profit to give me credit for it, and those who get no benefit from it at least to sympathise with me in meeting so little success for my good intentions. I may be told—You are alone in raising this matter; you do but trouble yourself; you cannot turn aside the course, which is old and well-established, and therefore very strong for you to strive against. This thing which you recommend is not every man’s wares; it will not be compassed. Do you let it alone; if you must needs write, turn your pen to other matters which the State will like better, which this age will readily approve of, which you may urge with credit if they be new and suitable, or confirm with praise if they be old and need repeating.

If such objections were not invariably raised to all attempts to turn either from bad to good, or from good to better, I would answer them carefully, but now I need not, for in order to gain any advantage he who wishes to have it must be prepared to wrestle for it, both in speech and in writing, against the corruption of his age, against the loneliness of attempt, against party prejudice, against the difficulties of performance. Nor must he be discouraged by any ordinary thwarting, which is a thing well known to experienced students, and of least account where it is best known, however fearful a thing it may seem to timid fancies to stem corruption and strive against the stream. For the stream will turn when a stronger tide returns, and even if there be no tide, yet an untiring effort will make way against it till it prevails. And surely it were more honourable for some one, or some few, to hazard their own credit and estimation for the time in favour of a thing which they know to be deserving of support, though it may not be held of much account, than through too timorous a concession to public opinion, which, in spite of its influence, is not always the soundest, to leave excellent causes without defence if they be opposed. For may it not fall out that such a thing as this will be called for hereafter, though at present it may be out of favour, because something else is in fashion? I had rather, therefore, that it were ready then to be of use when it is wished, than that posterity should be defrauded of a thing so passing good, for fear of its being disliked at the first setting forth.

Reasons for Writing in English.

I write in my natural English tongue, because though I appeal to the learned, who understand Latin, I wish to reach also the unlearned, who understand only English, and whose interests are to be the more considered that they have fewer chances of information. The parents and friends with whom I have to deal are for the most part no Latinists, and even if they were, yet we understand that tongue best to which we are first born, and our first impression is always in English before we render it into Latin. And in recommending a new method of attaining an admitted benefit, should we not make use of all the helps we can to make ourselves understood? He that understands no Latin can understand English, and he that understands Latin very well can understand English far better, if he will confess the truth, however proud he may be of his Latinity. When my subject requires Latin I will not then spare it, as far as my knowledge allows, but till it do, I will serve my country in the way that I think will be most intelligible to her.

First Principles.

My purpose is to help the whole business of teaching, even from the very first foundation, that is to say, not only what is given in the Grammar School, and what follows afterwards, but also the elementary training which is given to infants from their first entrance, until they are thought fit to pass on to the Grammar School. In my manner of proceeding I propose to follow the precedent of those learned authors who have treated with most credit of this and similar subjects, in first laying down certain principles to which all readers will agree. By this means it is possible to pass on to the end without challenge, or if any difficulty should arise, it can always be resolved by a reference to these principles. In mathematics, which offers the best model of method to all the other sciences, before any problem or theorem is presented, there are set down certain definitions, postulates, axioms, to which general assent is asked at the outset, and on which the whole structure is built up. I am the more inclined to adopt this method, because I am to deal with a subject that must at the first be very carefully handled, till proof gives my treatment credit, whatever countenance hope may seem to lend it in the meanwhile.

I mean specially to deal with two stages in learning, first the Elementary, which extends from the time that the child is set to do anything, till he is removed to the higher school, and then the Grammar School course, where the child doth continue in the study of the learned tongues till at the time of due ripeness he is removed to some university. The importance of the Elementary part lieth in this, that a thorough grounding here helps the whole course of after study, whereas insufficient preparation in the early stages makes a very weak sequel. For just as a proper amount of time spent here, without too much haste to push onwards, brings on the rest of the school stages at their due season, and in the end sendeth abroad sufficient men for the service of their country, so too headlong a desire to hurry on swiftly, in perpetual infirmity of matter, causeth too much childishness in later years, when judgment and skill and ripeness are more in keeping with grey hairs. The Grammar School course, while it is a suitable subject for me to deal with, as I am myself a teacher, is also very profitable for the country to hear of, as in the present great variety of teaching, some uniform method seems to be called for. To have the youth of the country well directed in the tongues, which are the paths to wisdom, the treasuries of learning, the storehouses of humanity, the vehicles of divinity, the sources of knowledge and wisdom—can this be a small matter, if it be well performed? If fitting occasion by the way should cause me to attempt anything further than these two divisions of the subject, though I should seem to be going beyond my school experience, I trust I shall not be thought to travel beyond my capacity. In seeking for the approval of men I may indeed find some who are satisfied with things as they are, who think their penny good silver, and decline my offer, being unwilling to receive teaching from such humble hands as mine. There may be others who grant that there is something amiss, but think my remedy not well fitted to amend it, and look disdainfully on my credentials. I admit my lack of authority, but till some one better takes the matter up, why should I not do what I can? If the wares I bring prove marketable, why should I not offer them for sale? As I am likely to encounter such objections, I propose at the outset to meet all I can on grounds of reason, with full courtesy to those who make them.

Inasmuch as I must apply my principles to some one ground, I have chosen the Elementary, rather than the Grammar School course, because it is the very lowest, and the first to be dealt with, and because the considerations that apply to it may easily be transferred afterwards to the Grammar School or any other studies. The points I propose to deal with are such as the following: At what age a child should be sent to school, and what he should learn there; whether all children should be sent to school; whether physical exercise is a necessary part of upbringing; whether young maidens ought to be set to learning; how young gentlemen should be brought up; how uniformity can be introduced into teaching. I shall also speak of courtesy and correction, of public and private education, of the choice of promising scholars, of places and times for learning, of teachers and school regulations, and of the need for restricting the numbers of the learned class. In my views on these and kindred matters I shall seek to win the approval of my countrymen, before I proceed to deal with particular precepts and the details of the upbringing of children. In my discussion of all these matters, while in method I shall follow the example of the best writers, I will, in the substance of my argument, make appeal only to nature and reason, to custom and experience, where there is a clear prospect of advantage to my country, avoiding any appearance or suspicion of fanciful and impracticable notions. I may hope that the desire to see things improved will not be accounted fanciful, unless by those who think themselves in health when they are sick unto death, and while feeling no pain because of extreme weakness, hold their friends foolish in wishing them to alter their mode of life.

The Use of Authority.

Some well-meaning people, when they wish to persuade their fellow-countrymen either by pen or by speech, to adopt a certain course, if they can claim the authority of any good writers favouring their opinions, straightway assume that their own arguments are sufficiently supported to ensure their proposal being carried out. This assurance, however, is checked sometimes by reflection, sometimes by experience. Wise reflection may foresee that the special circumstances of the country will not admit of the proposed change, or after some trial the unsuitability may be shown by experience. So that in cases where authorities persuade, and circumstances control, those who would use earlier writers to maintain their credit must always keep in view the application to particular conditions. I see many people of good intelligence, considerable reading, and facility of expression, both abroad and at home, fall into great error by neglecting special circumstances, and overstraining the force of authority. In dealing with education, must I entreat my country to be content with this because such a one commends it, or force her to that because such a State approves of it? The show of right deceives us, and the likeness of unlike things doth lead us where it listeth. For the better understanding with what wariness authority is to be used, let it be considered that there are two sorts of authors that we deal with in our studies. Of the one kind are writers on the mathematical sciences, who proceed by the necessity of a demonstrable subject, and enforce the conclusions by inevitable argument. Of the other kind are writers on the moral and political sciences, who, dealing with human affairs, must have regard to the circumstances of every particular case. With the former the truth of the subject-matter maintains itself, without the need for any personal authority, and is beyond debate; it is with the latter that controversy arises, the writer’s credit often authorising the thing, and in this case great injustice may be done by quoting without discrimination as to difference of circumstance. It is no proof that because Plato praiseth something, because Aristotle approveth it, because Cicero commends it, because Quintilian or anyone else is acquainted with it, therefore it is for us to use. What if our country honour it in them, and yet for all that may not use it herself, because the circumstances forbid? Nay, what if the writers’ authority be cited without considering in what circumstances the opinion was originally expressed? Is not a great wrong done by him who wresteth the meaning of the author he quotes? He that will deal with writers so as to turn their conclusions to the use of his country must be very well advised, and diligently mark that their meaning and his application are consistent, and must consider how much of their opinion his country will admit. Whether I shall myself be able to carry out what I demand from others, I dare not warrant, but I will do my best to use my author well, and to take circumstances into account, never, if I can help it, to offer anything that has not all the foundations that I promised before, namely, nature to lead it, reason to back it, custom to commend it, experience to approve it, and profit to prefer it.

I think a student ought rather to invest himself in the habit of his writer than to stand much upon his title and authority in proof or disproof, as it is well understood that all our studies are indebted to the original devisers and the most eloquent writers. Therefore, to avoid undue length, I will neither give authorities nor examples, as it is not a question of a man’s name, but of the real value of the argument. I shall not busy myself with citing authors, either to show what I have read or how far I am in agreement with others. It is not needful to heap up witnesses where nothing is doubtful; the natural use of testimony is to prove where there is doubt, not to cloy where all is clear. In such cases, for want of sound judgment, a catalogue of names and a multitude of sentences, which only say what no one denies, are forced on to the stage to seem to arm the quoter, who is fighting without a foe, and flying when there is no cause for fear.

In points of learning which are beyond controversy, I appeal to the judgment of those who have gone over the same ground, and can test the truth of what I say without being told the name of the author, whom they will admit to have been well cited when they find me saying as he saith, whether it be through recollection of what I have read or from coincidence of judgment where I have not read. I do honour good writers, but without superstition, being in no way addicted to titles. But seeing that Reason doth honour them, they must be content to remain outside themselves, and use every means to bring her forward, as their lady and mistress, whose authority and credit procure them admission when they come from her. It is not so because a writer said so, but because the truth is so, and he said the truth. Indeed, the truth is often weakened in the hearer’s opinion, though not in itself, by naming the writer. If truth did depend upon the person, she would often be brought into a miserable plight, being constrained to serve fancy and alter at will, whereas she should bend to no one, however opinionative people may persuade themselves. This is known to the learned and wise, whose courtesy I crave. As for the unlearned, I must entreat them, for their sakes if not for mine, not to debate with me on points where they cannot judge. In matters that are intelligible to both, I must pray them to weigh my words well, and ever to give me credit for good intentions.

The Ideal and the Possible.

Those ancient writers, who have depicted ideal commonwealths, and have imagined the upbringing of such paragons as should be fitted for a place in them, before asking when their youth should begin to learn, have commonly laid down the conditions of their training from a very early stage. They begin by considering how to deal with the infant while he is still under his nurse, discussing whether he should be nursed by a stranger or by his mother, what playfellows should be chosen for him while he is still in the nursery, and what exquisite public or private training can be devised for him afterwards. These and other considerations they fall into, which do well beseem the bringing up of such an one as may indeed be wished, though scarcely hoped for, but can by no means be applied to our youth and our education, wherein we wish for no more than we can hope to have. Nay, these writers go further, as mere wishers may, and appoint the parents of this so perfect a child, to be so wise and learned that they may indeed fit into an ideal scheme, but too far surpass the model that I can have in view. Wherefore leaving on one side these ideal measures and people, I mean to proceed from such principles as our parents do actually build on, and as our children do rise by to that mediocrity which furnisheth out this world, and not to that excellence which is fashioned for another. And yet there is a value in these fine pictures, which by pointing out the ideal let us behold wherein the best consisteth, what colours it is known by, what state it keepeth, and by what means we may best approach it. It may perhaps be said that despair of obtaining the very best is apt to discourage all hope, for by missing any one of these rare conditions—and our frailty will fail either in all or in most—we mar the whole mould. Howbeit we are much bound to the excellent wits of those divine writers who, by their singular knowledge approaching near to the truest and best, could most truly and best discern what constitution they were of, and being anxious to serve their race thought it their part to communicate what they had seen, if only for this, that while we might despair of hitting the highest, yet by seeing where it lodged we might with great praise draw near unto it.

But to return from this question of ideals to our ordinary education, I persuaded myself that all my countrymen wish themselves as wise and learned as these imaginary parents are surmised to be, though they may be content with so much, or rather with so little, of wisdom and learning as God doth allot them, and that they will have their children nursed as well as they can, wherever or by whomsoever it may be, so that the beings whom they love so well as bequeathed to them by nature, may be well brought up by nurture; and that till the infant can govern himself, they will seek to save it from all such perils as may seem to harm it in any kind of way, either from the people or the circumstances that surround it, and that this will be done with such forethought as ordinary circumspection can suggest to considerate and careful parents; and finally, that for his proper schooling, all who can will provide it, even if it be at some cost.

When School Education should begin.

One of the first questions is at what age children should be sent to school, for they should neither be delayed too long, so that time is lost, nor hastened on too soon, at the risk of their health. The rule therefore must be given according to the strength of their bodies and the quickness of their wits jointly. If the parents be not wanting in means, and there is a convenient place near, wherein to have the child taught, and a teacher with sufficient knowledge, and with discretion to train him up well by correction and teaching him good manners, and fit companions, such as so good a master may be able to choose; and if the child also himself have a good understanding and a body able to bear the strain of learning, methinks it were then best that he began to be doing something as soon as he can use his intelligence, without overtaxing his powers either of mind or body, as the wise handling of his teacher will direct. What the age should be I cannot say, for ripeness in children does not always come at the same time, any more than all corn is ripe for one reaping, though it is pretty nearly at the same time. Some are quick, some are slow; some are willing when their parents are, and others only when they are inclined themselves, according as a wise upbringing has disposed them to do well, or foolish coddling has made them prefer their play.

Risk of Overpressure.

Anyone who deserves to be a parent should be prepared to judge for himself as to his young son’s ripeness for school life, and surely no one is so destitute of friends that he has not some one to consult if necessary. Those who fix upon a definite age for beginning have an eye to that knowledge which they think may be easily gained in these early years, and which it would be a pity to lose. I agree with them that it would be a pity to lose anything needlessly that could be gained without much effort and without injuring the child. But it would be a greater pity for so small a gain to risk a more important one, to win an hour in the morning, and lose the whole day after. If the child has a weak body, however bright his understanding may be, let him grow on the longer till his strength equals his intelligence. For experience has taught me that a young child with a quick mind pushed on for people to wonder at the sharpness of its edge has thus most commonly been hastened to its grave, through weakness of body, to the grief of the child’s friends and the reproach of their judgment; and even if such a child lives, he will never go deep, but will always float on the surface without much ballast, though perhaps continuing for a time to excite wonder. Sooner or later, however, his intelligence will fail, the wonder will cease, while his body will prove feeble and perish. Wherefore I could wish the brighter child to be less upon the spur, and either the longer kept from learning altogether, lest he suffer as the edge of an oversharp knife is turned, or at least be given very little, for fear of his eagerness leading to a surfeit.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano.

As in setting a child to school we consider the strength of his body no less than the quickness of his mind, it would seem that our training ought to be two-fold, both body and mind being kept at their best, so that each may be able to support the other in what they have to do together. A great deal has been written about the training of the mind, but for the bettering of the body is there no means to maintain it in health, and chiefly in the student, whose occupation treads it down? Yea, surely, a very natural and healthful means in exercise, whereby the body is made fit for all its best functions. And therefore parents and teachers ought to take care from the very beginning that in regard to diet the child’s body is not stuffed so that the intelligence is dulled, and that its garments neither burden the body with their weight nor weaken it with too much warmth. The exercise of the body should always accompany and assist the exercise of the mind, to make a dry, strong, hard, and therefore a long-lasting, body, and by this means to have an active, sharp, wise, and well-learned soul.

Physical Exercise needs Regulation.

It is not enough to say that children are always stirring of their own accord, and therefore need no special attention in regard to bodily exercise. If it were not that we make them keep absolutely still when they are learning in school, and thus restrain their natural stirring, then we might leave it to their own inclinations to serve their turn without more ado. But a more than ordinary stillness requires more than ordinary exercise, and the one must be regulated as much as the other. And as sitting quiet helps ill-humours to breed and burden the body, relief must be sought in exercise under the direction of parents and teachers.

Physical and Mental Training should go together.

The soul and the body, being co-partners in good and ill, in sweet and sour, in mirth and mourning, and having generally a common sympathy and mutual feeling, how can they be, or rather why should they be, severed in education? I assign both the framing of the mind and the training of the body to one man’s charge. For how can that man judge well of the soul, whose work has to do with the body alone? And how shall he perceive what is best for the body, who having the soul only committed to his care, hands over the body to some other man’s treatment? Where there is too much distraction and separation of functions, each specialist tends to make the most of his own subject, to the sacrifice of others that may be more important. Wherefore in order to have the care which is due to each part equally distributed, I would appoint, I say, only one teacher to deal with both. For I see no great difficulty either in regard to the necessary knowledge, or to the amount of work. Moreover, as the disposition of the soul will resemble that of the body, if the soul be influenced for good, it will affect the body also.

Exercise Specially Necessary for Students.

For though the soul as the fountain of life, and the stimulus of the body, may and will bear it out for a while, by force of courage, yet weakness cannot always be dissembled, but will in the end betray itself, perhaps just when it is the greatest pity. Many people of high spirit, notable for their learning and skill in the highest professions, have failed, owing to want of attention to bodily health, just when their country had most hope of benefiting by their services. It is needful, therefore, to help the body by some methodical training, especially for those who use their brains, such as students, who are apt to consider too little how they may continue to do that for long which they do well. They should eat very moderately, and their exercise should also be moderate, and not vary too much, and their clothing should be thin, even from the first swaddling, that the flesh may become hard and firm.

The Best Kinds of Exercise.

[Mulcaster gives a list of the forms of exercise which he thinks most suitable, both for indoors, and for out of doors. In the former class are—speaking and reading aloud, singing, laughing, weeping, holding the breath, dancing, wrestling, fencing, and whipping the top; in the latter are—walking, running, leaping, swimming, riding, hunting, shooting, and playing at ball. These of course are not all considered suitable for children, but a selection could be made from them to be practised in school under the regulation of the master. He then enters upon a detailed and curious examination of the value of each of these forms of exercise, considered mainly in regard to their physiological effects. In all this it has been pointed out by Schmidt (Geschichte der Erziehung, Vol. III., Pt. I, pp. 374-6) that Mulcaster followed closely, though without special acknowledgment, the De Arte Gymnastica of Girolamo Mercuriale, a contemporary Italian physician. As the science is mostly of the traditional and somewhat fantastic character then prevalent, the discussion is not particularly profitable from a modern standpoint. It will be interesting, however, as an illustration of his treatment, to see how he deals with a game that seems to have had much the same features in his day as in ours.]

Football as a Form of Exercise.

Football could not possibly have held its present prominence, nor have been so much in vogue as it is everywhere, if it had not been very beneficial to health and strength. To me the abuse of it is a sufficient argument that it has a right use, though as it is now commonly practised, with thronging of a rude multitude, with bursting of shins and breaking of legs, it is neither civilised, nor worthy the name of any healthy training. And here one can easily see the use of the training master, for if there is some one standing by, who can judge of the play, and is put in control over the players, all these objections can be easily removed. By such regulation, the players being put into smaller numbers, sorted into sides and given their special positions, so that they do not meet with their bodies so boisterously to try their strength, nor shoulder and shove one another so barbarously, football may strengthen the muscles of the whole body. By provoking superfluities downwards it relieves the head and the upper parts, it is good for the bowels, and it drives down the stone and gravel from the bladder and the kidneys. The motion also helps weak hams and slender shanks by making the flesh firmer, yet rash running and too much violence often break some internal conduit and cause ruptures.

Is Education to be offered to both Sexes?

We are next to consider who are those to whom education should be given, which I take to be children of both sorts, male and female. But young maidens must give me leave to speak of boys first, because naturally the male is more worthy and more important in the body politic; therefore that side may claim learning as first framed for their use and most properly belonging to them, though out of courtesy and kindness they may be content to lend some advantages of their education in the time of youth to the female sex on whom they afterwards bestow themselves, and the fruit of their whole training.

All cannot receive a Learned Education.

As for boys, it has been set beyond doubt long ago, that they should be sent to school, to learn how to be religious and loving, how to govern and obey, how to forecast and prevent, how to defend and assail, and in short, how to perform excellently by labour the duties for which nature has fitted them only imperfectly. But in the matter of this so desirable a training, two important questions arise; first, whether all children should be put to school without any restraint upon the number, and secondly, if any restriction is needful, how it is to be imposed. In the body politic a certain proportion of parts must be preserved just as in the natural body, or disturbances will arise, and I consider that it is a burden to a commonwealth on the one hand to have too many learned, just as it is a loss on the other hand to have too few, and that it is important to have knowledge and intelligence well adapted to the station in life, as, if these are misplaced it may lead to disquiet and sedition.

There is always danger to a State in excess of numbers beyond the opportunities of useful employment, and this is specially true in the case of scholars. For they profess learning, that is to say, the soul of the State, and it is too perilous to have the soul of the State troubled with their souls, that is, necessary learning with unnecessary learners. Scholars, by reason of their conceit which learning inflames, cannot rest satisfied with little, and by their kind of life they prove too disdainful of labour, unless necessity makes them trot. If that wit fall to preach which were fitter for the plough, and he to climb a pulpit who was made to scale a wall, is not a good carter ill lost, and a good soldier ill placed?

All children cannot get a full training at school, even though their private circumstances admit of it, yet as regards writing and reading, if that were all, what if everyone had them, for the sake of religion and their necessary affairs? In the long period of their whole youth, if they minded no more, these two would be easily learned in their leisure times by special opportunities, if no ordinary means were available and no school nigh. Every parish has a minister, who can give help in regard to writing and reading, if there is no one else.

Choice of Scholars both from Rich and Poor.

Some doubt may rise between the rich and poor, whether all rich and none poor, or some in both, may and should be sent to learning. If some rich are sent, provided for out of private resources, some poor will be commended by promising parts to public provision for the general advantage, and if neither private nor public provision is mismanaged, the matter will decide itself by the capacity of the learners and their disposition to prove virtuous. The safe condition is that the rich should not have too much, nor the poor too little. In the former case, the overplus breeds a loose and dissolute brain; in the latter, the insufficiency causes a base and servile temper. For he who is never in need, owing to the supplies of his friends, never exercises his wits to be a friend to himself, but commonly proves reckless till the black ox treads upon his toes, and necessity makes him try what mettle he is made of. And he who is always in need, for want of friends, is apt to find his heaven in whatever rids him of his difficulties, and to worship that saint who serves his turn best. Now if wealthy parents out of their private fortune, and public patrons out of their surplus wealth would try to avoid these two extremes, then neither would over-abundance make the one too wanton, nor want make the other too servile. Neither would be tempted to hasten on too fast, the one lest he should lose some time, and the other lest he should miss some chance of a livelihood. The middle sort of parents, who neither welter in too much wealth, nor wrestle with too much want, seem most promising of all, if their children’s capacity is in keeping with their parents’ circumstances and position, which must be the level for the fattest to fall down to, and the leanest to leap up to, to bring forth the student who will serve his country best.

The Number of Scholars limited by Circumstances.

All cannot pass on to learning that throng thitherward, because of the inconveniences that may ensue, by want of preferment for such a multitude, and by depriving other trades of their necessary workers. Everyone desires to have his child learned, yet for all that every parent must bear in mind that he is more bound to his country than to his child. If the parent will not yield to reason some kind of restraint must be used. Fortunately the question is often determined by necessity. You would have your child learned, but your purse will not stretch; you must be patient, and devise some other course within your means. You are not able to spare him from your elbow for your own needs, whereas learning must have leisure, and the scholar’s book be his only business free from outside interference. You have no school near you, and you cannot pay for teaching further off; then let your own trade content you, and keep your child at home. Or your child is of weak constitution; then let schooling alone, make play his physician, and health his object. Whichever way necessity drives you, perforce that way must ye trot. If the restrained child cannot get the skill to write and read, I lament that lack, for these two points concern every man nearly, and are useful in every kind of business. I dare not venture to allow so many the Latin tongue, nor any other language, unless it be in cases where those tongues are found necessary in their trades. For otherwise the fear is lest, having such benefits of school, they will not be content with their own station in life, but because they have some little smack of book learning they will think even the highest positions low enough for them, not considering that in well-governed States Latin is allowed both to country clowns and town artificers; yet these remain in their own calling, without pride or ambition, on account of that small knowledge by which they are better able to furnish out their own trades.

The Number of Scholars kept down by Law.

It is no objection to allege against such a lawful restraint, that if such a measure had been in force we might have lost men of high intelligence and great learning who have been of much service to the State. Some degree of foresight and orderly restraint are more likely to secure that necessary functions will be well served than if all is left to chance and individual will. Nor is it reasonable to object that it were a pity, by the severity of an unkind law, to hinder that excellence which God commonly gives to the poorer sort.

Talent not peculiar either to Rich or Poor.

As for pitying the poor, ye need not wish a beggar to become a prince, though ye allow him a penny and pity his necessities. If he is poor provide for him, that he may live by trade, but let him not idle. Has he talent? Well, are artificers fools? And do not all trades require ability? But is he very likely to distinguish himself in learning? I do not reject him; he has his chance of being provided a public help in common patronage. But he does not well to oppose his own particular will against the public good; let his country think enough of him, but let him beware of thinking too much of himself. Because God has often shown himself bountiful in conferring talent on the poorer sort, that does not prove that he has not bestowed as great gifts on some of the upper class, though they may have failed to use them. The commonwealth, it is urged, must be prepared to give scope for ability, in whatever class it may be found.

Choice of those fit for Learning.

The choice of learners is a matter requiring careful thought at all times and in all places, but especially in our own day and country. For it is more important to whom you commit learning when you have found what to learn than to find what to learn before you commit it, because the best instrument should always be handled by the fittest person, and not by every one that has a fancy to handle it. When the choice follows private liking rather than public advantage, more mischief is caused than is easily discovered, though the smart is generally felt. There is indeed little use in discussing the question of fitness, if no choice is to be made when the question is decided. And as the bestowal of learning must have its beginning in the young child, ought not good choice to go before if the due effect is to follow?

How the Choice of Scholars should be Determined.

I will now consider what kinds of talent and disposition are, even from infancy, to be thought most fitting to serve the State in the matter of learning. Often those who give least promise at first turn out most suitable in the end; wherefore the absolute rejection of any, before maturity is reached, not only does an injury to those who are rejected, but would be an evidence of rashness in those who reject. For the variety is very great, though where certainty is impossible preference must be given to the most likely. In the qualities that give promise of good service when learning has been gained, there are commonly reckoned an honourable disposition, zeal for moral virtue, and the desire to benefit society without thought of personal profit. There must also be taken into account the shrewdness of intelligence which will not be easily deceived nor diverted from a right opinion, either by the influence of feeling in themselves or the strength of persuasion in others. And generally whatever virtue gives proof of a good man and a good citizen must be held of value, so that the learner should show capability and discretion in matters of learning, and towardness and constancy in matters of living. All this refers to free men who can secure independently the opportunities of learning, yet provision is to be made for those of good natural intelligence who need some help. There are three kinds of government—Monarchy, Oligarchy, and Democracy, each of which demands a different type of citizen and scholar. That child is likely in later years to prove the fittest subject for learning in a Monarchy who at a tender age shows himself obedient to the rules of the School, and, if he should offend, takes his punishment gently, without complaining or taking affront. In behaviour towards his companions he is gentle and courteous, without wrangling or complaining. He will lend a helping hand, and use every persuasion rather than have either his teacher disquieted or his school-fellows punished. And, therefore, either he receives similar courtesy from his school-fellows, or whoever shows him any discourtesy must be prepared for challenge and combat with all the rest. If he has any natural capacity in which he excels his companions, it will be so well regulated and show itself with such modesty that it shall appear in no way upsetting or over-ambitious. At home he will be so deferential to his parents, so courteous among servants, so dutiful toward all with whom he has to deal, that there will be contention who can praise him most behind his back, and who can cherish him most before his face. These qualities will not be easily discerned till the child is either in the Grammar School by regular but not premature advancement, or at least upon his passage from the completed course of the Elementary School, because his age by that time, and his progress under regulation, will make it possible in some degree to perceive his inclination. Before that time we pardon many things, and use encouragement and motives of ambition to inflame the little one onward, which are discontinued afterwards. When of their own accord, without any motive of fear or other incitement, they begin to make some show of their learning in some special direction, then conjecture is on foot as to what their career ought to be.

Grounds for Promotion.

When the possession of means bids the school door open, the admission and right of continuance is granted to all, till after some proof the master, who is the first chooser of the finest, begins to discern where there is ability to go forward, and where natural weakness suggests prompt removal. When the master has discovered strength or infirmity of nature, as may appear in the ease or difficulty of acquiring and retaining that are seen in boys of different aptitude, his desire will naturally be to have the promising scholars continued, to procure the removal of the duller ones by diverting their energy into some other course more in keeping with their natural bent than learning, in which they are likely to make little progress, however long they remain at school. Care must be taken, however, not to decide prematurely, for it may prove that those wits that at first were found to be very hard and blunt may soften and prove sharp in time, and show a finer edge, though this is not to be applied to dullards generally. For natural dulness will show itself in everything that concerns memory and understanding, while that kind of dulness that may some day change into sharpness will show itself only at intervals, like a cloudy day that will turn out fine in the end. Wherefore, injustice may be done by a hasty judgment, and, on the other hand, the boy who is not yet strong enough for manual work may remain a little longer at school, where, even if he do little good, he is sure to take little harm. Moreover, if the parents can afford it, and wish to keep their children on at school, even though their progress is small, the master must have patience, and measure his pains by the parent’s purse, where he knows there is plenty, and not by the child’s profit, which he sees will be small. Only he must keep the parent constantly informed how matters stand, both as a matter of duty and to prevent disappointment. But the case is different with a poor child, who should be sent to a trade at once, if he is not promising in learning.

Co-operation of Parents.

Seeing that the schoolmaster, to whose judgment I commend the choice, is no absolute potentate in our commonwealth, to dispose of people’s children as he pleases, but only a counsellor to act along with the parent, if the latter is willing to take advice, I should wish, that in order to have this duly accomplished, parents and teachers should be not only acquainted, but on friendly terms with each other. And though some parents need no counsel, and some teachers can give but little, yet the wise parent is always willing to listen before he decides, and the opinion of a skilful teacher deserves to be heard. If this co-operation cannot be established, the poor child will suffer in the present, and the parents will lose much satisfaction in the end. This kind of control will continue as long as the child is either under a master in school, or under a tutor in college, and in this period a great number may be very wisely arranged for, unlearned trades being sufficiently supplied, and a life of learning reserved for those only who by their intelligence and judgment are fitted for it. By such means the proportion will be properly adjusted in every branch of the public service, and the risk avoided of having too large a total number. This period under the master’s charge is the only period when the youth can be controlled by outside direction; for afterwards at a more dangerous age they come to choose for themselves, and their defects of nature and manners, if not corrected, may bring sorrow to them and to their friends. And though the schoolmaster may not always have his counsel followed in such a case, yet if he let the parent know his opinion his duty will be discharged. For if the parent shows himself unwilling to follow the teacher’s opinion, supported by good reasons, but under the influence of blind affection overestimates his child’s aptitude for learning, then though the master should for his own gain keep on an unpromising pupil, the fault lies with the parent who would not see even after fair warning. So that it always proves true that parents and teachers should be familiarly linked together in amity and continual conference for their common charge, and that each should trust in the judgment and personal goodwill of the other. This will come to pass only when the teacher is carefully chosen and kept on terms of friendly conference—not merely because “my neighbour’s children go to school with you, so you shall have mine too,”—a common reason in the case of children who are continually being sent posting about to try all sorts of schools, and never stay long in any, thus reaping as much learning as the rolling stone gathers moss.

Admission into Colleges.

The other means whereby some selection may be made is by admission into colleges, preferments to degrees, advancement to livings. In regard to these the commonwealth may receive all the greater harm that they come nearer the public service, so that plain dealing is the more praiseworthy, in order to prevent mischief. As concerns colleges I do not consider that the scholarships in them are intended only for poor students, for whose needs that small help could never suffice, (though some advantage may be given to them in consideration of special promise which has no other chance of being recognised) but rather that they are simply preferments for learning and advancements for virtue, alike to the wealthy as a reward of well-doing, and to the poorer students as a necessary support. Therefore, as in admission I would give freedom to choose from both sorts, so I would restrict the choice to those who give genuine promise of usefulness. For if elections are swayed by favour, shown on grounds not of merit but of private friendship, though perhaps with some colour of regard for learning, those who are responsible for the injustice will repent when it is too late, finding themselves served in their own coin; for those who get in by such means, owing their own advancement to private influence, will act in the same way towards others, without regard to the common welfare. When favour is shown on any other ground than that of merit, founders are discouraged, public provision is misused, and learning gives place to idling. But if elections were made on grounds of fitness alone, the unfit would be diverted in time into some other channel, the best would be chosen, the intentions of founders would be fulfilled, some perjury for the non-performance of statutes would be avoided, new patrons would be procured, religion advanced, and good students encouraged.

Preferment to Degrees.

Preferment to degrees may be, and indeed ought to be, a more powerful check on insufficiency, because by this means the whole country is made either a lamentable spoil to bold ignorance, or a favourable soil for sober knowledge. When a scholar is allowed by authority of the University to profess capacity in a certain specialty for which he bears the title, and is sent into the world by the help of people who have acted under unworthy influences in disregard of merit, what must our country think when she hears the boast of the University title sound in her ears, and fails to find the benefit of University learning to serve her in her need? She will not blame the ignorant graduate, who is only naturally trying to do the best for himself, but she will very greatly blame the Universities for having deceived her and betrayed her trust. For in granting a degree the University is virtually saying, “Before God and my country, I know this man, not by perfunctory knowledge, but by thorough examination, to be well able to perform in the Commonwealth the duties of the profession to which his degree belongs, and the country may rest upon my credit in security for his sufficiency.” What if the University knew beforehand that he neither was such an one, nor was ever likely to prove such? Let the earnest professors of true religion in the universities at this day consult their consciences and remedy the defect for their own credit and the good of their country. A teacher may be pardoned, for seeking thus earnestly to have true worth recognised, considering that thereby would come not only satisfaction to himself, but advantage to his pupils and to the country at large. Can he be anything but grieved to see the results for which he has laboured with infinite care and pains set at naught by bad management at a later stage? It seems to be reasonable for anyone who is given the charge of numbers to concern himself not only with what comes under his own immediate regulation, but with the means of securing public protection and encouragement for his pupils after they pass out of his care.

Natural Capacity in Children.

I will now consider what children ought to learn when they are first sent to school. There are in the human soul certain natural capacities which by the wisdom of parents and the discernment of teachers, who may perceive them in the child’s infancy and do their best to cultivate them, may eventually be made very profitable both to their possessor, and to the commonwealth. If these natural capacities are not perceived, those who are responsible must be charged either with ignorance or with negligence, and if they are perceived but are either not improved or wrongly directed, the teachers and trainers, whether they are parents or schoolmasters, must be much lacking in sound skill, or else they are guided by stupid fancies. Without making any complete analysis of the mental powers, I would point out some natural inclinations in the soul, which seem to crave the help of education and nurture, and by means of these may be cultivated to advantage. In the little young souls we find first a capacity to perceive what is taught to them, and to imitate those around them. That faculty of learning and following should be well employed by choosing the proper matter to be set before them, by carefully proceeding step by step in a reasonable order, by handling them warily so as to draw them on with encouragement. We find also in them a power of retention; therefore their memories should at once be furnished with the very best, seeing that it is a treasury, and never suffered to be idle, as it loses its power so soon. For in default of the better, the worse will take possession, and bid itself welcome. We find in them further an ability to discern what is good and what is evil, so that they should forthwith be acquainted with what is best, by learning to obey authority, and dissuaded from the worse by the fear of disapproval. These three things, perception, memory, and judgment, ye will find peering out of the little young souls at a time when ye can see what is in them, but they cannot yet see it themselves. Now these natural capacities being once discerned, must as they arise be followed with diligence, increased by good method, and encouraged by sympathy, till they come to their fruition.

Encouragement better than Severity.

The best way to secure good progress, so that the intelligence may conceive clearly, memory may hold fast, and judgment may choose and discern the best, is so to ply them that all may proceed voluntarily, and not with violence, so that the will may be ready to do well, and loth to do ill, and all fear of correction may be entirely absent. Surely to beat for not learning a child that is willing enough to learn, but whose intelligence is defective, is worse than madness.

Moral Training falls chiefly on Parents.

The duty of leading children to cleave to the good and forsake the bad, in matters of ordinary conduct, is shared by all who come in contact with them; it belongs to the parents by nature, to schoolmasters by the charge committed to them, to neighbours as a matter of courtesy, and to people in general on the ground of a common humanity. Teachers, it is true, have special opportunities of influencing the morals and manners of children, by means of the authority they naturally exercise, in teaching them what is best, and inducing them to practise it, even by force at first, till they come to appreciate it for themselves. But this control of good manners is not for teachers alone, for as I have said, they must co-operate with the parents, to whom that duty naturally appertains most nearly, as they have the fullest authority over the children. Wherefore, reserving for the teacher only so much as strictly belongs to him, in instructing the child what is best in good manners, and in framing good regulations and seeing that they are properly carried out, I refer the rest to those who are the appointed guardians of morals, to secure either by private discipline at home, or by public control outside, that young people are well brought up to distinguish the good from the bad, the seemly from the unseemly, that they may know God, serve their country, be a comfort to their friends, and help one another, as good fellow-citizens are bound to do. But the task of training their intelligence and memory belongs wholly to the teacher, and I will now proceed to deal with it.

Elementary Instruction—Reading.

I might very well be thought wanting in discretion if I were to press any far-fetched proposals into this discussion of general principles, and I shall therefore deal only with methods that are in harmony with the customs of this country, and with the circumstances of the time. Among the subjects of instruction that have universally been recognised and practised, Reading certainly holds the first place, alike for the training of the mind in the process of acquiring it, and for its usefulness after it is acquired. For the printed page is the first and simplest material for impressions in the art of teaching, and nothing comes before it. When by gradual practice in combining letters and in spelling out words under direction, the child has acquired the faculty of reading easily, what a cluster of benefits thus come within reach! Whatever anyone has published to the world by pen or print, for any end of profit or pleasure, whether of free will or under constraint, by reading it is all made to serve us—in religion, to promote the love and fear of God, in law, to aid us in rendering obedience and service to our fellow-men, and in life generally to enable us to expel ignorance and acquire skill to do everything well. Wherefore I make Reading the first foundation on which everything else must rest, and being a thing of such moment, it should be thoroughly learned when it is once begun, as facility will save much trouble both to master and scholar at a later stage. The child should have his reading perfect both in the English and in the Latin tongue long before he dreams of studying grammar.

The Vernacular First.

As for the question whether English or Latin should be first learned, hitherto there may seem to have been some reasonable doubt, although the nature of the two tongues ought to decide the matter clearly enough; for while our religion was expressed only in Latin, the single rule of learning was to learn to read that language, as tending to the knowledge valued by the Church. But now that we have returned to our English tongue as being proper to the soil and to our faith, this restraint is removed, and liberty is restored, so that we can follow the direction of reason and nature, in learning to read first that which we speak first, to take most care over that which we use most, and in beginning our studies where we have the best chance of good progress, owing to our natural familiarity with our ordinary language, as spoken by those around us in the affairs of every-day life. This is the better order also in respect that English presents certain difficulties that are absent in Latin, and that children can master more easily when their memories are still unstored, and considerations of reason do not affect them. While Latin has been purified to a definite form in which it has been fixed and preserved, English, though it is progressing very fairly, is still wanting in refinement, the spelling being harder, and the pronunciation harsher, than in Latin.

Material of Reading.

In this a special and continual regard should be had to these four points in the child—his memory, his delight, his capacity, and his advancement.

As to his memory, I would provide that as he must practise it even from the first, so he may also practise it upon the best, both for pleasure in the course of learning, and for profit afterwards.

As to his delight, which is no mean allurement to his learning well, I would be equally careful that the matter which he shall read, may be so fit for his years, and so plain to his intelligence, that when he is at school, he may desire to go forward in so interesting a study, and when he comes home, he may take great pleasure in telling his parents what pretty little things he finds in his book, and that the parents also may have no less pleasure in hearing their little one speak, so that each of them shall rather seek to anticipate the other, the child to be telling something, and the parent to be asking.

As to his capacity, I would so provide, that the matter which he shall learn may be so easy to understand, and the terms which I will use, so simple to follow, that both one and the other shall bring nothing but encouragement.

As to his advancement, I would be very particular that there may be such consideration and choice in syllables, words, and sentences, and in all the incidental notes, that there shall be nothing wanting which may seem worth the wishing, to help fully either in spelling correctly, or reading easily; so that the child who can read these well, may read anything else well, if the reading master will keep that order in his teaching which I intend to give him in my precept, and not do the infant harm by hurrying him on too fast, and measuring his forwardness not by his own knowledge but by the notions of his friends.

Writing.

Next to reading followeth Writing, at some reasonable distance after, because it requireth some strength in the hand, which is not so steady and firm for writing as the tongue is stirring and ready for reading. But though in education writing should succeed reading, in its origin it must have been earlier. For the pen or some such instrument did carve, first roughly and then completely, the letter or letter-like device, and thereby did the eye behold in outward form what the voice delivered to the ear in sound, so that writing was used as the interpreter of the mind, and reading became the expounder of the pen. From its rude beginnings writing has advanced so much that it now proves the prop of remembrance, the executor of most affairs, the deliverer of secrets, the messenger of meanings, the inheritance of posterity, whereby they receive whatever is bequeathed to them, in law to live by, in letters to learn and enjoy. For the proper study of this valuable art the master must himself acquire, and must teach his scholar, a neat handwriting, fast and easy to read, and the matter of the headline, from which example is taken, should be pithy, and suitable for enriching the memory with a profitable provision. Practice should not be left off till it hath brought great skill and readiness, for writing once perfectly acquired is a wonderful help in the rest of our learning.

Elementary Period a Time of Probation.

During the time of learning to read and to write the child’s intelligence will manifest itself so as to decide whether it may venture further upon greater learning, or were best, owing to some natural defect, to take to something requiring less skill. But if the child is set to any higher work while he is still of tender years, his master pushing him on beyond what he is ready for, there may be loss of temper, which often breaks out into beating, to the dulling of the child, the discouraging of the master, and the reproach of school-life, which should not only yield satisfaction in the end, when learning has become a sure possession, but should pass on very pleasantly by the way. Whatever children learn, they should learn perfectly, for if opportunity to go on further should fail them, through loss of friends or other misfortune, it were good that they know thoroughly what they had practised, whereas if it is known only imperfectly it will stand them in very small stead, or none at all. To write and read well is a pretty good stock for a poor boy to begin the world with.

Drawing.

After careful consideration of the matter no one will hold it open to controversy that Drawing with pen or pencil should be taught along with writing, to which it is very closely related. For a pen and penknife, ink and paper, a pair of compasses and a ruler, a desk, and a sandbox, will set them both up, and in these early years, while the fingers are flexible, and the hand easily brought under control, good progress can be made. And generally those that have a natural aptitude for writing will have a knack of drawing too, and show some evident talent in that direction. And the place that judgment holds in the mind as the measure of what is just and seemly, is filled in the world of sense by drawing, which judges of the proportion and aspect of all that appeals to the eyes.

Because Drawing uses both number and figure to work with, I would cull out as much numbering from Arithmetic, the mistress of numbers, and so much figuring out of Geometry, the lady of figures, as shall serve for a foundation to the child’s drawing, without either difficulty to frighten him, or tediousness to tire him. Whatever shall belong to colouring, shading, and such other technical points, since they are more the concern of the painter than of the beginner in drawing, I would reserve them for a later stage, and leave them to the student’s choice, when he is to specialise and betake himself to some particular trade in life. At which time, if he chance to choose the pen and pencil to live by, this introduction will then prove his great friend, as he himself shall find, when he puts it to the proof. Last of all, inasmuch as drawing is a thing that is thoroughly useful to many good workmen who live honestly by its means, and attain a good degree of estimation and wealth, such as architects, embroiderers, engravers, statuaries, modellers, designers, and many others like them, besides the learned use of it for Astronomy, Geometry, Geography, Topography, and such other studies, I would therefore pick out some special figures, appropriate to many of the foresaid purposes which it seems fittest to teach a child to draw, and I would also show how these are to be dealt with from their very beginning to their last perfection, seeing it is beyond all controversy that if drawing be thought needful it should be dealt with while the fingers are supple, and the writing is still in progress, so that both the pen and the pencil, both the rule and the compass, may go forward together.

Music.

Music completes the list of elementary subjects, and is divided into two parts—the cultivation of the voice, and the practice of an instrument, the former resembling reading, as it produces to the ear what is seen by the eye, the latter resembling writing, as it imitates the voice. Both should be begun early, while the voice and the muscles are still pliable to training. Singing has the advantage of being less costly than the study of an instrument in regard to the necessary provision. As to the value of Music, there can be no room for doubt; indeed, it seems to have been sent as a solace from heaven for the sorrows of earth. Some men think it is over sweet, and should be either dispensed with altogether, or at least not much practised. For my own part I cannot forbear to place it among the most valuable means in the upbringing of the young, and in this opinion I have the support of all the best authorities of antiquity. There are so many arguments in favour of the art; it is so ancient, so honourable, so universal, so highly valued in all times and places, alike in Church services and otherwise; it is such a calmer of passion, such a powerful influence on the mind, that I must stay my hand in writing about it, lest being fairly embarked I should be unable to stop. It will be enough for me to say of Music that it is in accordance with national custom, that it is very comforting to the wearied mind, that it is a means of persuasion which all must appreciate who delight in the proportions of number, that it is best and most easily learned in childhood, when it can do least harm, that its harmonies could not have such power to stir emotion if they had not some close natural affinity to the constitution of the body and soul of man, and that we see and read the wonderful effects it has had in the cure of desperate diseases. And yet with all its claims it arouses distrust in some quarters, even in honest and well-disposed natures that are too much inclined to sternness. They, however, will probably alter their opinion, if they will consider more deeply what Music is in its true nature, or if they come to discuss the matter with those who take a sounder view, or more certainly still if the art in its best form has a favourable chance of appealing to their listening ears. The science itself hath naturally great power to probe and sway the inclination of the mind to this or that emotion, through the properties of number in which it consists. It also gives great delight through its harmonies, to which the moods of the hearers respond. It is for this that some disapprove of it, holding that it provokes too much to vain pleasures, and lays the mind open to the entry of light thoughts. And to some also it seems harmful on religious grounds, because it carrieth away the ear with the sweetness of the melody, and bewitcheth the mind with a siren’s sound, seducing it from those pleasures wherein it ought to dwell, into fantasies of harmony, and withdrawing it from virtuous thoughts to strange and wandering devices. A sufficient answer to all this is that in respect of a thing that may be, and was meant to be, properly used, it is no just ground against it that it may also be abused. Music will not harm thee if thy behaviour be good, and thy intention honest; it will not betray thee if thy ears can take it in and interpret it aright. Receive it in a proper spirit, and it will serve thee to good purpose. If thy manners be bad, or thy judgment corrupt, it is not music alone which thou dost abuse, nor canst thou clear thyself of the blame that belongs to thy character by casting it on Music. It is thou that hast abused her, and not she thee. And why should those who can use it rightly forego their own good because of a few peevish people who can never be pleased?

The training in Music, as in all other faculties, has a special eye to these three points:—the child himself, who is to learn; the matter itself, which he is to learn; and the instrument itself, on which he is to learn. I will so deal with the first and the last heads, that is, in regard to the child and the instrument, that neither of them shall lack whatever is needful, either for framing the child’s voice, or exercising his fingers, or choosing his lessons, or tuning his instrument. For in the voice there is a proper pitch, where it is neither over nor under-strained, but delicately brought to its best condition, to last out well, and rise or fall within due compass, and so that it may become tunable and pleasant to hear. And in the training of the fingers also, there is regard to be had, both that the child strike the notes clearly, so as not to spoil the sound, and that his fingers run with certainty and lightness, so as to avoid indistinct execution. Of these the first commonly falls out through too much haste in the young learner, who is ever longing to press forward; the second fault comes of the master himself, who does not consider the natural dexterity and order of development in the joints, for if this is rightly attended to, the fingers easily become flexible and master difficulties of execution without pain. As for the matter of music, which the child is to learn, I would set down by what means and degrees, and by what lessons, a boy who is to be brought up to sing may and ought to proceed regularly from the first term of art, and the first note in sound, until he shall be able without any frequent or serious failure to sing his part in prick-song, either by himself at first while he is inexperienced, or with others for good practice afterwards. For I take so much to be enough for an Elementary institution, which can only introduce the subject, though it must follow the right principle, and I postpone the study of composition and harmony till further knowledge and maturity are attained, when the whole body of music will demand attention. And yet since the child must always be advancing in that direction, I would set him down to rules of composition and harmony, which will make him better able to judge of singing, just as in language he who is accustomed to write can best judge of a writer. Concerning the virginals and the lute, which two instruments I have chosen because of the full music uttered by them and the variety of execution they require, I would also set down as many chosen lessons for both as shall bring the young learner to play reasonably well on them, though not at first sight, whether by the ear or by the book, always provided that prick-song go before playing.

Four Elementary Subjects.

Children, therefore, are to be trained up in the Elementary School, for helping forward the abilities of the mind, in these four things, as recommended to us both by reason and custom: Reading, to enable us to receive what has been bequeathed to us by others, and to store our memories with what is best for us; Writing, to enable us to do for others what was done for us, by handing on the fruits of our own experience, and besides to serve our own purposes; Drawing, to be a guide to the senses, and to afford us pleasure in the objects of sight; and Music, both with the voice and with an instrument, for the reasons above stated.

By reading we receive what antiquity has left us; by writing we hand on what posterity craves of us; by both we get great advantage in all the circumstances of our daily life. By delineating with the pencil, what object is there open to the eye, either brought forth by nature, or set forth by art, the knowledge and use of which we cannot attain to? By the study of music, besides the acquirement of a noble science, so definitely formed by arithmetical precept, so necessary a step to further knowledge, such a glass in which to behold both the beauty of concord and the blots of dissension, even in a body politic, how much help and pleasure our natural weakness receives for consolation, for hope, for courage! I do not touch here on the skilful handling of the untrained voice, nor the fine exercising of the unskilled fingers, though these things are not to be neglected where they can be obtained, and are naturally required when imperfection is to be removed by them. Again, does not all our learning, apprehended by the eye and uttered by the tongue, confess the great benefit it receives by reading? Does not all our expression, brought forth by the mind and set down by the pen, acknowledge obligation to the study of writing? Do not all our descriptions, which picture to the sense what is fashioned in thought, both preach and praise the pencil which makes them visible? Does not all our delight in times of leisure,—and we labour only for the sake of gaining rest and freedom from care,—protest in plain terms that it is wonderfully indebted to the music of both voice and instrument? This is the natural sweetener of our bitter life, in the judgment of every man who is not too much soured. Now, what quality of learning is there, deserving of any praise, that does not fall within this elementary course, or is not furthered by it, whether it be connected with the higher professions, or occupations of lower rank, or the necessary trades of common life?

Study of Languages.

Inasmuch as Grammar is used partly as a help to foreign languages, it furthers us very much in that way, because all our learning being got from foreign countries, as registered in their tongues, if we lack the knowledge of the one, we lack the hope of the other.

When learning and knowledge came first to light, those men who were the authors of them uttered their minds in the same speech that they used when they bred the things. And as they needed no foreign tongue for matter that was bred at home, so they had no use of any Grammar but that by which they endeavoured to refine their natural speech at home. But when their devices, first set out in their own tongues, were afterwards sought for by foreign students to increase their learning and to enrich their country with foreign wares, the foreign students were then driven to seek the assistance of Grammar of the second kind, because they could not understand the things which were written in a foreign tongue, without the knowledge of the tongue itself.

In the primitive Grammar children being trained as I now require, went straightway from the elementary to the substance of learning, and to the mathematical sciences, which are so termed, because indeed the whole scholars’ learning consisted in them, as in the first degree of right study. For whatever goes before them in right order is nothing but mere elementary study, and whatever goes before them in wrong order, as it is distorted in nature, it works no great wonder. But in the second use of Grammar, we are forced of necessity, after the elementary subjects, however hurried and simple they may be, to deal with the tongues ere we pass to the substance of learning; and this help from the tongues, though it is most necessary, as our study is now arranged, yet hinders us in time, which is a thing of great price,—nay, it hinders us in knowledge, a thing of greater price. For in lingering over language we are removed and kept back one degree further from sound knowledge, and this hindrance comes in our best learning time, while we are under masters and readers, of whom we may learn far better than of ourselves, if as much regard be had to their choice, as I have elsewhere recommended.

Follow Nature.

The proof of a good Elementary Course is, that it should follow nature in the multitude of its gifts, and that it should proceed in teaching as she does in developing. For as she is unfriendly wherever she is forced, so she is the best guide that anyone can have, wherever she shows herself favourable. Wherefore, if nature makes a child most fit to excel in many aptitudes, provided these are furthered by early training, is not that education much to be blamed that fails to do its part, allowing the child to be deprived by negligence of the excellence that nature intended for it? Again, seeing that there are no natural gifts that cannot be helped forward by training, is not that manner of study to be most highly approved which takes most pains where nature is most lavish? The hand, the ear, the eye, are the chief means of receiving and handing on our learning. And does not this course of study instruct the hand how to write, to draw, to play; the eye to read by letters, to distinguish form by lines, to judge by means of both; the ear to call for the sound of voice and instrument for its own pleasure and cultivation? And, in general, whatever gift nature has bestowed upon the body, to be brought out or improved by training, for any profitable use in life, does not this elementary course find it out and make the most of it? As for the capacities of the mind, whether they concern virtuous living or skill in learning, whatever be the art, science, or profession to which they belong, do they not all evidently depend upon reading and writing as their natural foundations? The study of language must be the basis of grammar, rhetoric, logic, and their derivatives, among which may be counted all the parts of philosophy, both moral and natural, as well as the three professions of divinity, law, and medicine, using as they do in all their branches the instrument of speech. If mathematics be in question, or any kindred subjects that have a bearing on mechanical science, though their secondary use is to whet the mental powers, yet they must rest on a study of the properties of number, figure, motion, and sound. And as for our pleasure in the beauties of art, that is obtained by the provision of drawing for the eye and music for the ear. So that, in my opinion, the fathers and founders of this elementary course (which I am only attempting to reintroduce, though with as much goodwill as so good a thing deserves) have shown great foresight in laying such sure foundations as to secure that all natural capacities shall not only be carefully fostered at their first sprouting, but brought to the fullest perfection when they are ripe for the harvest. When I use the term nature I mean that power which God has implanted in his creatures, both to preserve the race and to fulfil the end of their being. The continuance of their kind is the proof of their being, but the fulfilment of their end is the fruit of their being. This latter is the point to which education has a special eye (though it does not despise the other), so that the young fry may be brought up to prove good in the end, and serve their country well in whatever position they may be placed. For the performance of this end I take it that this elementary course is most sufficient, being the best means of perfecting all those powers with which nature endows our race, by using those studies which art and reflection appoint, and those methods which nature herself suggests. For the end of education and training is to help nature to her perfection in the complete development of all the various powers.

This is what I mean by following nature, not counterfeiting her in her own proper work by foolish imitation, or perverse attempt to produce her effects, like an Apelles in portraiture or an Archimedes in the laws of motion, but after considering and marking with good judgment what are the natural tendencies and inclinations, to frame a scheme of education in consonance with these, and bring to perfection by art all those powers which nature bestows in frank abundance.

For the physical life of man, in order to maintain and develop both the individual and the species, nature has provided organs that receive, prepare and distribute nourishment for the body, and has, besides, given us for self-preservation the power of perceiving all sensible things by means of feeling, hearing, seeing, smelling, and tasting. These qualities of the outward world, being apprehended by the understanding and examined by the judgment, are handed over to the memory, and afterwards prove our chief—nay, our only—means of obtaining further knowledge. Moreover, we have also a power of movement, either under the influence of emotion or by the enticement of desire, either for the direct purposes of life, as in the action of the pulse and in breathing, or for outward action, such as walking, running, or leaping. To serve the end both of sense-perception and of motion, nature has planted in the body a brain, the prince of all our organs, which by spreading its channels through every part of our frame produces all the effects through which sense passes into motion.

Further, our soul has in it a desire to obtain what it holds to be good, and to avoid what it thinks evil. This desire is stirred either by quiet allurement or by violent incitement, and when once it is inflamed it strives to compass its end. To satisfy this desire nature has given us a heart to kindle heat, and as the sense is moved by the qualities of the object, and motion is effected by means of sinews, so appetite, being stirred by the object of desire or repulsion, is supplied with the means of satisfying itself.

Last of all, our soul has in it an imperial prerogative of understanding beyond sense, of judging by reason, of directing action for duty towards God and our fellowmen, for conquest in affection and attainment in knowledge, and for such other things as minister to the varied uses of our mortal life, and prove its title to continue beyond the sphere of this roaming pilgrimage. To serve this honourable purpose of understanding and reasoning, nature, though she has no place in this earthly body of ours worthy to receive such great and stately guests with their whole retinue, yet does what she can, and, herself acting as harbinger, assigns them for lodging her principal chamber, the very closet of the brain, where she bestows every one of reason’s understanding friends, according to their various ranks and special dignities. All those capacities in their first natural condition concern only the existence of an uncultivated man; but when they are fashioned to their best by good education, they form the life of a perfect and excellent man. For to exist merely, to feed, to multiply, to use the senses, to desire, to have natural and unimproved reason—what great thing is it, though it is something more than brute beasts have, if the other divine qualities that build upon these are not diligently followed? These higher powers not only rise out of the lower at the first, but honour them in the end, just as the best fruit honours its first blossom, or as the most skilful work graces the first ground on which it is wrought. Besides that they prove themselves to be the most excellent ends which nature meant from the first, though she herself made but a weak show, however pliable for man’s industry to work on for his own advantage. He who does not live at all cannot live well; he who does not feed at all cannot feed moderately; he who does not reproduce cannot exercise continence; he who has no sense cannot use it soberly; he who does not desire cannot desire considerately; he who uses no reason cannot use it advisedly. But he who exercises all these functions has in them all the capacities that nature can afford him to use them all well, and he will so use them if judgment rule as much in having them well as necessity in having them at all. For reason, as it is our difference in comparison with beasts, is our excellence in comparison with men, if we use it aright.

Those powers of reasoning and understanding in man, therefore, being handled in a workmanlike fashion and applied to their best uses by such devices and means as are thought fittest, direct the natural appetites so as to secure the health of the parts appointed for them, and of the whole body, which is compounded of those parts. They develop the senses and their organs to their best perfection and longest endurance. They restrain desire to the rule of reason and the advice of foresight. They enrich the mind and the soul itself by laying up in the treasury of remembrance all arts and imaginations, all knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, by which either God is to be honoured or the world is to be honestly and faithfully served; and this heavenly benefit is begun by education, and confirmed and perfected by continuous exercise, which crowns the whole work.

Education of Girls.

In naming the persons who were to receive the benefit of education I did not exclude young maidens, and, therefore, seeing I made them one branch of my division, I must now say something more about them. Some may think that the matter might well enough have been passed over in silence, as not belonging to my purpose, seeing that my professional concern is with the education of boys. But seeing that I begin as low as the first elementary training, in which young maidens ordinarily share, how could I seem to take no notice of them? And to prove that they ought to receive education I find four special reasons, any one of which—therefore surely all together—may persuade their greatest adversary, much more then myself, who am for them tooth and nail. The first is the custom of the country, which allows them to learn. The second is the duty we owe to them, charging us in conscience not to leave them deficient. The third is their own aptness to learn, which God would never have bestowed on them to remain idle or to be used to small purpose. The fourth is the excellent results shown in them when they have had the advantage of good upbringing.

I do not advocate sending young maidens to public Grammar Schools, or to the Universities, as this has never been the custom in this country. I would allow them learning within certain limits, having regard to the difference in their vocation, and in the ends which they should seek in study. We see young maidens are taught to read and write, and can learn to do well in both; we hear them both sing and play passing well; we know that they learn the best and finest of our learned languages to the admiration of all men. As to the living modern languages of highest reputation in our time, if any one is inclined to deny that in these they can compare with the best of our sex, they will claim no other tests than to talk with such a one in whichever of these tongues he may choose. These things our country doth stand to; these accomplishments their parents procure for them according to their means and opportunities, in so far as their daughters’ aptitude doth offer hope of their gaining an advantage through them, by being preferred in marriage or some other career. Nay, do we not see in our country some of that sex so excellently well trained, and so rarely qualified in regard both to the tongues themselves and to the subject-matter contained in them, that they may be placed along with, or even above, the most vaunted paragons of Greece or Rome, or the German and French gentlewomen so much praised by recent writers, or the Italian ladies who dare even to write themselves, and deserve fame for so doing?

And what be young maidens in relation to our sex? Do we not, according to nature, choose from among them those who are to be our nearest and most necessary friends, the mothers of our children? Are they not the very creatures that were made for our comfort, the only remedy for our solitude, our closest companions in weal or woe, sharers in all our fortunes until death? And can we in conscience do otherwise than give careful thought to the welfare of those that are linked to us in so many ways? Is it a small thing to have our children’s mothers well strengthened in mind as in body? And is there any better means of strengthening their minds than to teach them that knowledge of God and religion, of civil and domestic duties, which we ourselves gain by education, and ought not to deny to them—that education which is to be found in books, and can be so well acquired in youth?

If Nature has given to young maidens abilities to prove excellent in their kind, and yet thereby in no way to fail in their most laudable duties in marriage, but rather to beautify themselves with admirable ornaments, are we not to be charged with extreme unnaturalness if we do not guide by discipline what is given to them by Nature?

The excellent effects in those women who have been well trained show clearly that they deserve the best training. What better example can be found to assure the world than our most dear sovereign lady and princess, who is so familiarly acquainted with the nine Muses that they strive which may love her best for being the most learned, and for whose excellent knowledge we who taste of the fruit have most cause to rejoice?

Aim of Education for Girls.

But now having granted them the benefit and society of our education, we must determine the end which this training is to serve, so that it may be better applied. Our training is without restriction either as regards subject-matter or method, because our employment is so general; their functions are limited, and so must their education be also. If a young maiden is to be brought up with a view to marriage, obedience to authority and similar qualities must form the best kind of training; if from necessity she has to learn how to earn her own living, some technical training must prepare her for a definite calling; if she is to adorn some high position she must acquire suitable accomplishments; if she is destined for government, which may be offered to her by men, and is not denied her by God, the greatness of the position calls for general excellence, and a variety of gifts. Wherefore, having these different ends always in view, we may appoint them different kinds of training in accordance with circumstances.

But some churlish carper will say: “What should women do with learning?” Such a one will never pick out the best, but be always ready to blame the worst. If all men always made a good use of their learning we might have something to allege against women, but seeing that misuse is common to both sexes why should we blame them, when we are not free from the same infirmity ourselves? Some women may make a bad use of their writing, others of their reading; some may turn all that they learn to bad account. And I pray you what do we? I do not excuse ill, but I bar those from accusing who are as bad themselves. As we share both virtues and vices with women, let us exchange forbearance, and, hoping for the best, give them free opportunity.

When their Education should begin.

This is my opinion as to which ought to be educated and when they should begin. The same liberty, in respect of circumstances, being allowed to parents in regard to their daughters as has been granted to them with their sons, the same consideration being had for their fitness of mind and body, and the same care being taken for suitable physical exercise to further their health and strength, I consider the same time of beginning proper for both—a time not to be wholly determined by years, but rather by their development as shown by their ability to use their intelligence without tiring, and to work without wearying their bodies. For though girls seem generally to have a quicker ripening of intelligence than boys, in spite of appearances this is not the case. Through natural weakness they cannot contain long what they possess, and so give it out very soon; yet there are prating boys just as there are prattling wenches. Besides, their brains are not so much laden as those of boys, either as regards amount or variety, and therefore like empty casks they make the greater noise. In the same way those men who seem to be very quickwitted by some sudden pretty answer or some sharp repartee, are not always most burdened with learning, but merely offer the best out of a small store, taking after their mothers. Though they must of course possess this sharpness of wit since it manifests itself, yet it might dwell within them a great while without manifesting itself, if study kept them quiet, or they were preoccupied with great deeds. It is small affairs, urging to speedy expression, that beget that kind of readiness. Boys have it always but often hide it because they can afford to wait; girls have it always and always show it, because they are in a greater hurry. And seeing it is to be found in both, it deserves care in both, so that they should neither be pushed on too much nor allowed to be idle too long. Maidens are naturally weaker in body, therefore more attention must be paid to them in this regard than is necessary for boys. They are to be the principal pillars in the upholding of households, and so they are likely to prove if their training be wise. They will be the dearest comfort a man can have if they incline to good, the greatest curse, if they tread awry. Therefore they are to be warily tended, as they bear a jewel of such worth in a vessel of such weakness.

All should have Elementary Education.

The rare excellences in some women cannot be taken as a precedent for all to follow, as they only show us the special success that a few parents have attained in their daughters’ upbringing. These shining examples, however, though they cannot be used to form general precepts, are at least proofs that women can learn if they will, and may learn what they please, if they lend their minds to it. To learn to read is very common where it is convenient, and writing is not refused, where opportunity serves. Reading, even if it were of no other use, is very needful for religion, to enable them to know what they ought to perform, if they have none whom they can listen to, or if their memories are not steadfast, to refresh them. Here I may not omit many great pleasures which those women that have time and skill to read, without hindering their housewifery, do continually receive by reading comforting and wise discourses, penned either in the form of history or directions to live by. As for writing, though it may be abused, it is often very convenient, especially in matters of business.

Music is very desirable for maidens where it is to be had, though chiefly for the satisfaction of the parents when the daughters are young, as is generally shown when the young wenches become young wives, and in learning to be mothers, lightly forget their music, thus proving that they studied it more to please their parents than themselves. But if having been once learned, it can be kept up, as is quite possible with proper management, it is a pity to let it go, as it was acquired only with great pains and at considerable cost. Learning to sing and play from the notes is easy enough, if it be attended to from the first, and this can be kept up too, though it suffers from discontinuance. Seeing it is but little that girls can learn, the time being so short, because they are always in haste to get husbands, it is expedient that what they do should be done perfectly, so that with the loss of their penny they do not lose their pennyworth also.

As for skill in needlework and housewifery, it is a great recommendation in a woman to be able to govern and direct her household, to look to her home and family, to provide and take care of necessaries, although the good-man pay, to know the resources of her kitchen in regard to all over whom she has charge, in sickness and in health. But I meddle not with this as I am only dealing with things that are incident to learning. I have now spoken of all the subjects that should universally be taught to girls.

Higher Studies for Some.

The question as to how far any maiden may proceed in learning beyond the subjects already spoken of requires more consideration and more careful handling as it is a matter of some moment concerning those in high position. And yet there are some of low degree that seek to resemble those above them, and are satisfied even with an appearance of imitation, but in so doing they are passing the bounds of what is beseeming to their birth. It is mere folly when a parent of humble station traineth up his daughter in these high accomplishments, of which I shall presently speak, if she marries in her own lowly rank. For in such a case these gifts will seem so out of place that she will not gain the respect that is paid to one who has been wisely brought up, but will rather be accused of vain presumption. Each rank has a certain preparation becoming to it, which is best secured when there is no attempt to overstretch one’s powers. If some unusual capacity attain success beyond expectation, it is generally a marked exception, and whoever shoots at the same mark, in the hope of hitting, may sooner miss, for there are many chances of missing to one of hitting, and wonders that are seen only once are no examples to imitate. Every maid may not hope to speed as she would wish, because one hath sped better than she could have wished.

When the question is how much a woman ought to learn, the answer may be, “as much as shall be needful,” and if this is doubtful also, the reply may be, either as much as befits what her parents hope to obtain for her, if their position be humble, or as much as is in keeping with the prospects naturally belonging to their rank, if that rank be high. If the parents be of good standing, and the daughters have special aptitudes, these may be successfully cultivated, so that the young maidens are very soon commended to right honourable matches in which their accomplishments will be seemly and serviceable, benefitting perhaps the commonwealth as well as their own families. If the parents be of humble rank, and the maidens in their education show from the very first some special gifts that offer good promise, even with natural progress, there is ground for hope that their unusual qualities may bring them to some great match. Doubtless this hope may fail, for great personages have not always the good judgment, nor young maidens the good fortune, that would lead to such a result, yet in any case the maidens would remain the gainers, for they at least have their gifts to comfort their mediocre station, and those great personages lose from the lack of judgment to set forth their nobility.

What Higher Studies are Suitable.

Carrying the education further may consist either in perfecting the four studies already mentioned, reading well, writing neatly, singing sweetly, and playing finely, to such an unusual degree, that though the things are but ordinary, special excellence in them may bring more than ordinary admiration, or else in acquiring skill in languages in addition to the above, so that the abundance of gifts may cause yet more wonder.

I fear women would have little turn for geometry or the sister sciences, nor would I make them mathematicians, except in so far as they study music, nor lawyers to plead at the bar, nor physicians, though skill in herbs has been much commended in women, nor would I have them profess divinity, to preach in pulpits, though they must practice it as virtuous livers. Philosophy would help them in general discourse, if they had leisure to study it, but the knowledge of some tongues, either as the vehicle of deeper learning, or for their immediate uses, may well be wished for them, and all those powers also that belong to the furniture of speech. If I should allow them the pencil to draw, as well as the pen to write, and thereby entitle them to all my elementary studies, I might have good reasons to give. For young maidens are ready enough to take to it, and it would help to beautify their needlework.

And is not a young gentlewoman, think you, thoroughly well equipped who can read distinctly, write neatly and swiftly, sing sweetly, and play and draw well, understand and speak the learned languages, as well as the modern tongues approved by her time and country, and who has some knowledge of logic and rhetoric, besides the information acquired in her study of foreign languages? If in addition to all this she be an honest woman and a good housewife, would she not be worth wishing for and worth enshrining? And is it likely that her children will be one whit the worse brought up?

Who should be their Teachers.

The only other question in regard to young maidens is where, and under whom, they should learn, and this depends on how long their studies can extend, which is generally till they are about thirteen or fourteen years old.

Those who are able to continue longer have their time and place suitably appointed, according to the circumstances of their parents. As for their teachers, their own sex were fittest in some respects, but ours frame them best, and with good regard to some circumstances, will bring them up excellently well, especially if the parents co-operate by exercising a wise control over them. The greater-born ladies and gentlemen, as they are to enjoy the benefit of this education most, so they have the best means of prosecuting it, being able to secure the best teachers, and not being limited in time. And so I take my leave of young maidens and gentlewomen, to whom I wish as well as I have said well of them.

The Education of Young Gentlemen.

Under my last heading I set forth at large how young maidens were to be advanced in learning according to their rank, which methought was very incident to my purpose, because they are counterbranches to us as mortal and reasonable creatures, and also because they are always our mates, and may sometimes, according to law and birth, be our mistresses. Now, considering that they are always closely connected with us, and sometimes exceed us in dignity of position, as they share with us all qualities, and all honours even up to the sceptre, why should they not also share in our training and education, so that they may perform well the part which they have to play, whether it be in a position of equality with us, or sovereignity above us? Here now ensueth another question of great importance in regard to the kind of people who are to be dealt with, the question of a class whose position is always in the superlative, and of whom great things are expected, though sometimes by their own fault they forfeit their chances, and hand them over to others whom nature ennobles through their inborn virtues—I mean young gentlemen of all ranks up to the crown itself. It is the custom among those of good birth to prefer to have their sons educated privately at home rather than at school. This is reasonable enough for maidens because of their sex, but young gentlemen should be educated publicly, that they may have the benefit of mixing with others, as has been the custom in all the best ordered commonwealths, and has been recommended by all the most learned writers, even in the case of princes.

Private and Public Education.

What is the import of these two words ‘private education’? Private is that which hath respect in all circumstances to some particular case; public in all circumstances regardeth every one alike. Education is the bringing up of one, not to live alone, but amongst others, because company is our natural medium; whereby he shall be best able to perform all those functions in life which his position shall require, whether public or private, in the interest of his country in which he was born, and to which he owes his whole service. All these functions are in reality public, and concern everyone, even when they seem most private, because individual ends must be adjusted to wider social ends; and yet people give the preference to private education where all the circumstances are peculiar to one learner; as if he who was brought up alone were always to live alone, or as if one should say, ‘I will have you to deal with all, but never to see all; your end shall be public, but your means shall be private.’ How can education be private? It is an abuse of the name as well as of the thing. This isolation, for a pretended advantage in education, of those who must afterwards pass on together, is very mischievous, as it allows every parent to follow out his own whims, relying on the privacy of his own house to be free from criticism, on the subserviency of the teacher whom he may choose to suit his own purposes, and on the submission of his child who is bound to obey him on pain of meeting his displeasure. In public schools such swerving from what is generally approved is impossible. The master is always in the public eye, what he teaches is known to all; the child is not alone, and he learns only what has been submitted to the judgment of the community. Whatever inconveniences may be inseparable from schools, still greater arise in private education. It puffs up the recluse with pride; it is an enemy to sympathy between those who have unequal opportunities; it fosters self-conceit in the absence of comparison with others; it encourages contempt in the superior, and envy in the inferior. This kind of education which soweth the seed of dissension by discovering differences, where the fruits of a common upbringing should be seen in the firm knitting of social bonds, should be discouraged owing to its effect in instilling the poison of spite. Certainly the thing doth naturally tend this way, though its influence may be often interrupted in time by the pressure of public opinion. But if the child turn out better then I have forecast, and show himself courteous, it will be due to his natural goodness, or to his experience outside, not to the kind of education which brings no such courtesy, though the child may see it in his parents, and read of it in his books. Sometimes it maketh him too sheepishly bashful when he comes to the light, owing to his being unaccustomed to company. More commonly, however, he is too childishly bold through noting nothing except what he breeds in his own mind in his solitary training, where he thinks only of himself, and has none to control him, not even his master, whatever show there may be of obedience to authority in this private cloistering. Surely it is reasonable for one in his childhood to become acquainted with other children, seeing he has to live with them as men in his manhood. Is it good for the ordinary man to be brought up on a well-regulated public system, and not good for the man of higher position? By ‘private’ I do not mean what is done at home for public uses—in that case almost everything might be called private—but what is kept at home by preference, in order to serve the better the interest of a particular individual. It would seem to be generally a question not of the matter or the method of education, but of the select privacy of the place where it is given. I must beg leave to say that the results are in favour of public training, which from the midst of mediocrity brings up scholars of such excellence that they take a worthy place in all ranks, even next to the highest, whereas private education with all its advantages of wealth, doth rarely show anything in learning and judgment above bare mediocrity. There is no comparison between the two kinds, if prejudice be set aside. If the privately-taught pupil chance to come to speak, it mostly falleth out dreamingly, because seclusion in education is a punishment to the tongue; and in teaching a language to exclude companions to speak to, is like seeking to quench thirst, yet closing the mouth so that no moisture can get in. If such a pupil come to write, it is lean, and nothing but skin, betraying the great pains the master hath had to take, in default of any helping circumstances through the pupil’s intercourse with companions. The boy can but repeat what he hears, and he hears only one person who, though he knew everything, cannot say much, for he hath no sufficient audience to provoke him to utterance. If the master made an effort to deliver himself of anything weighty, methinks an unobserved listener would hear a strange discourse, and would find the boy asleep; or, if he had a companion, playing with his hands or feet under the table, with one eye on his talking master and the other on his playmate.

But why is private education so much in vogue? There may be some excuse for those of very high position, especially for the prince himself, who standing alone, cannot well mix with his subjects, and must do what he can to surpass them without this advantage. Yet if even the greatest could have his education so arranged that he might have the company of a good choice number, wherein to see all the differences of capacity and learn to judge of all, as he hath afterwards to deal with all, would it be any sacrilege? But why do the gentry in this respect rather ape their superiors in rank, than follow the class below, who are really liker to them, and who form the chief supporters of the State? To have the child learn better manners and have more virtuous surroundings! As bad at home as outside; evil manners are brought into school, not bred there. To avoid the distraction of large numbers? The child shall notice the more, and so prove the wiser, the multitude of examples offering the means of sound judgment. Nay, in a number, though he find some undesirable, whom he should avoid, he shall find many apt and industrious, whom to follow. In school, moreover, he shall perceive that vice is punished, and virtue praised, as needs must where all is done in the public view. Is it to keep the child in health by making him bide at home, for fear of infection outside? Death is within doors also, and dainties at home have destroyed more children than dangers outside. Is it from affection, because ye cannot bear to let the child out of your presence? That is too foolish. Emulation is a great inspirer of virtue. If your child do well at home alone, how much better would he do with company? It quickens the spirits, and enlivens the whole nature, to have to compete with others—to have perhaps one companion ahead of him to follow and learn from, another below him to teach and vaunt over, and a third of his own standing with whom to strive for praise of forwardness.

To sum up this question, I do take public education to be better than private, as being more upon the stage, where faults are more readily seen and so are sooner amended, and as being the best means of acquiring both virtue and learning, which flourish according to their first planting. What virtue is private? Wisdom, to foresee what is good for a desert? Courage, to defend where there is no assailant? Temperance, to be modest where there is none to challenge? Justice, to do right when there is none to demand it?

What should a Gentleman learn?

As for the education of gentlemen, at what age shall I suggest that they should begin to learn? Their minds are the same as those of the common people, and their bodies are often worse. The same considerations in regard to time must apply to all ranks. What should they learn? I know of nothing else, nor can I suggest anything better, than what I have already suggested for all. Only young gentlemen must have some special studies that will help them to govern under their prince in positions of trust. They should have always before them the virtues that belong to the government of others, and to the wise direction of their own conduct. However, the general matter of duty being taught to all, each one may apply it to his own particular case, without the need for any special reference outside the ordinary school course, especially seeing that the duties of government just as often fall into the hands of those of lower rank whose virtue and capacity win them promotion. What exercises shall young gentlemen have? The very same as other children. What masters? The same. What difference of arrangements? All one and the same, except where private education is preferred, though, as I have said, they are none the better for the want of good fellowship. And if they are as well taught and as well exercised as should follow from the general plan laid down for all young children, they shall have no cause to complain of public education. For it is no mean stuff which is provided even for the meanest to be stored with.

The children of gentlemen have great advantages, which they may thank God for; they can carry on their education to the end, whereas those of the humbler class have to give it up sooner, and they have many opportunities which are denied to ordinary learners. If they fail to use these advantages aright they are all the more to blame, just as the greater credit is due to those who in spite of hindrances make such advancement that they win the preferments forfeited by the negligence of those to whom they naturally belong.

As for rich men, who not being of gentle birth, but growing to wealth by some means or other, imitate gentlemen in the education of their children, as if money made equality, and the purse were the ground of preferment, without any other consideration, who contemn the lower ranks from which they sprang, and cloister up their children as a support to their position, they are in the same case as regards freedom of choice, but far behind in true gentility. As they were of lower condition themselves, they might with more acceptance continue their children in the same kind of training which brought up the parents and made them so wealthy, and not try to push themselves into a rank too far beyond their humble origin. For of all the means to make a gentleman, money is the most vile. All other means have some sign of virtue, but this is too bad to mate either with high birth, or with great worth. For to become a gentleman is to bear the cognisance of virtue, to which honour is companion; the vilest devices are the readiest means to become most wealthy and ought not to look honour in the face. It may be pretended that intelligence and capacity have enabled them to make their way, but it is not denied that these qualities may be turned to the worst uses, may only once in a thousand times make a gentleman. It is not intelligence that deserves praise, but the matter to which it has been directed, and the manner in which it has been employed. When it is bestowed wisely on the good of the community, it deserveth all praise; if devoted wholly to filling a private purse, without regard to the means, so long as nothing evil is disclosed, then it deserveth no praise for the result, but rather suspicion as to the method of bringing it about. These people in their business will not scruple to bring poverty to thousands, and for giving a penny to one of these thousands they will be accounted charitable. They will give a scholar some pretty exhibition, in order to seem religious, and under a slender veil of counterfeit liberality will hide the spoil of ransacked poverty. And though they do not profess to be impoverishing people of set purpose, yet their kind of dealing doth pierce as it passeth.

But of these kind of folks I intend not to speak. My purpose is to employ my pains upon such as are gentlemen indeed. Yet it is worth that gives name and note to nobility; it is virtue that must endow it, or vice will undo it. As I wish well to this class, so I wish their education to be good, and if it were possible, even better than that of ordinary people. But that cannot be, for the common training, if it be well appointed, is the best and fittest for them, especially as they may have it in full, while those of meaner rank have to be content with it incomplete.

What makes a Gentleman.

Before I enter upon the training of gentlemen and show what is specially suitable for them, I will examine those points which are best got by good education, and being once got do adorn them most, which two considerations are not foreign to my purpose. I must first ask what it is to be a gentleman or a nobleman, and what qualities these terms assume to be present in the persons of those to whom they are applied, and afterwards, what are the causes and uses of gentility, and the reasons why it is so highly thought of.

But ere I begin to deal with any of these points, once for all I must recommend to those of gentle birth exercise of the body, and chiefly such kinds as besides benefiting their health shall best serve their calling and place in their country. Just as those qualities which I have set forth for the general training, being most easily compassed in their perfection by them, may very well beseem a gentlemanly mind, so may the physical exercises without exception be found useful, either to make a healthy body, seeing that our constitution is all the same, or to prepare them for such occupations as belong to their position. Is it not for a gentleman to follow the chase and to hunt? Doth their place reprove them if they have skill to dance? Is skill in sitting a horse no honour at home, no help abroad? Is the use of a weapon suitable to their calling any blemish to them? Indeed those great exercises are most proper to such persons and are not for those of meaner rank.

What is it then to be a nobleman or a gentleman? The people of this country are either gentlemen or of the commonalty. The latter is divided into those who are engaged in trade, and those who work with their hands. Their distinction is by wealth, for some of them, who have enough and more, are called rich men, some who have no more than enough, poor men, and some who have less than enough, beggars. There are also three ranks in gentility, the gentlemen, who are the cream of the common people, the noblemen, who are the flower of gentility, and the prince, who is the primate and pearl of nobility. Their difference is in authority, the prince having most, the nobleman coming next, and the gentlemen under both. To be virtuous or vicious, to be rich or poor, are no peculiar badge of either kind; a gentleman or a common man may alike be virtuous or vicious, rich or poor, with land or without it. But as the gentleman in any position must have the power of exercising his lawful authority there are some virtues that seem to belong to him specially, such as wisdom in policy, valour in execution, justice in forming decisions, modesty in demeanour. Whether gentility come by descent or desert makes no difference; he that giveth fame to his family first, or he that deserveth such honour, or he that adds to his heritage by noble means, is the man whom I mean. He that continueth what he received through descent from his ancestry, by desert in his own person, hath much to thank God for, and doth well deserve double honour among men, as bearing the true coat of arms of the best nobility, when desert for virtue is quartered with descent in blood, seeing that ancient lineage and inheritance of nobility are in such credit among us, and always have been. As gentility argueth a courteous, civil, well-disposed, sociable constitution of mind in a superior degree, so doth nobility imply all these and much more, in a higher rank with greater authority. And do not these distinctive qualities deserve help by good and virtuous education?

Learning useful to Noblemen.

Excellent wisdom, which is the means of advancing grave and politic counsellors, is but a single cause of preferment; likewise valour, which is the means of making a noble and gallant captain, is but a single cause of advancement; but where these two qualities, wisdom and courage, are combined in the same man, the merit is doubled. The means of preferment which depend upon learning are either martial, for war and defence in relation to foreign countries, or political, for peace and tranquillity at home. The warrior seems to depend most on his personal courage and experience, which without any learning or reading at all, have often brought forth excellent leaders, but with those helps in addition produce most rare and famous generals. Those who use the pen most in taking part in the direction of public government, or in filling the necessary offices in the administrative or judicial service of the State, for the common peace and quietness, without profession of further learning, though they have their chief instrument of credit from books, are not debtors to book-knowledge only, because industry, experience, and discretion have much to do with their success. It is those who depend wholly upon learning that I am most concerned with, when I ask how gentlemen should be trained to have them learned.

The highest position to which learned valour doth give advancement, is that of a wise counsellor, the fruit of whose learning is policy, not in the limited sense where it is opposed to straightforwardness, but in the philosophical sense, as meaning the general skill to judge things rightly, to see them in their due proportions, to adapt them to any given circumstances, with as little disturbance as possible to existing arrangements, whether it be in matters religious or secular, public or private, professional or industrial. Such a man is, in the sphere of religion, a divine who is able to judge soundly of the general principles and applications of divinity; in the sphere of government, a lawyer who makes the laws in the first instance, and knows best how to have them kept; in short he is the man, whether he be concerned with ecclesiastical or temporal affairs, and whatever his rank or his profession may be, who is most sound and able, and sufficient in all points. And though the specialist may know more than he in any particular matter which he has not leisure to get up thoroughly himself, yet he will be able to make such skilful and methodical enquiries of the special student that he will probe his knowledge to the bottom, and then handle the material he gains to better purpose than the other could with all his scholarship. Of all those that depend upon learning I hold this kind of man worthiest to be preferred, in divinity a chief among divines, though he do not preach, in law, the first of lawyers, though he do not plead, and similarly in all the other departments of public direction. But wherefore is all this? To show how necessary a thing it is to have young gentlemen well brought up. For if these causes do make the man of mean birth noble, what will they do in him whose honour is augmented with perpetual increase, if he add personal worth to his nobility in blood? Wherefore the necessity of the training being evidently so great, I will handle that as well as I can, by way of general precept, with reference to those whose wisdom is their weight, learning their line, justice their balance, honour their armour, and all the different virtues their greatest ornaments in the eyes of all men.

Course of Study for a Gentleman.

As I have already said, I know no better training for the gentleman than that which is provided under proper conditions for the ordinary man; but while the latter learns first for necessity, and afterwards for advancement, the greater personage ought to study for his credit and honour as well. For which be gentlemanly accomplishments, if these be not—to read, to write, to draw, to sing, to play, to have language and learning, health and activity, nay, even to profess Divinity, Law, Medicine, or any other worthy occupation? These things a gentleman hath most leisure to acquire, and not being too much under the spur of necessity he can practise them with uprightness. These so-called “liberal” professions are too commonly now in the hands of meaner men, who make a trade of their high calling, and only seek to enrich themselves. Doth Divinity teach to scrape, or Law to scratch, or any other kind of learning to which the epithet “liberal” is applied? The practice of these callings crieth for help to ransom it from the pressure of selfish needs to which it hath fallen a prey, owing to the indifference of the nobility, who think anything far more seemly to bestow their time and wealth upon than the learned professions. But if young gentlemen of parts would be pleased to be so well affected toward their country as to shoulder out mercenary professional men by themselves taking their places, how fortunate it would be for the country, and for the young gentlemen as well! Enough might be spared for such employment without unduly lessening the numbers that fill the court and carry on military and judicial functions only too abundantly. If the warlike gentlemen betook themselves to arms and paid more attention to exercise, and if the more peacefully-inclined took their books and fell to learning, recalling by diligence those faculties which they have for so long allowed to run waste, should not the change be welcomed? This were better than vain foppery and travelling about.

Foreign Travel.

What is this travelling? I do not ask in regard to merchants, whom necessity obliges to travel and to tarry long from home for the sake of their own trade and often of our benefit, nor in regard to soldiers, who when there is peace at home must go abroad to learn in foreign wars how to defend their country when it is necessary. Nor do I refer to such travellers as Solon, or Pythagoras, or Plato, who sought knowledge where it was, in order to bring it where it was not. We have no need to travel in search of learning as they did. We have at this day, thanks to printing, as much of that as any country needs to have,—nay, as much as the ancient world ever possessed, if we would use it aright. And young gentlemen, if they made the best use of their wealth, might procure and maintain such excellent masters and companions and libraries, that they might acquire all the best learning far better by studying quietly at home than by stirring about, if the desire for knowledge were the cause of their travelling. And this excuse is made even by people of meaner rank, who love to look abroad for instruction that they could get quite well at home from competent persons who never crossed the seas. If there be defects in our own country, they can be remedied out of our own resources by giving good heed to the matter, without the need of borrowing from other lands. What, then, is travel, interrupting education as it does, and raising the question whether young gentlemen in choosing it are benefiting their country and themselves? To travel is to see countries abroad, to mark their singularities, to learn their languages, and to return thence with an equipment of wisdom that will serve the needs of one’s own country.

There may be some who gain all these advantages from travel; but for one whose natural excellence and virtue will turn such a hazardous experience to profit, there are many to whom it will prove pernicious, owing to their impetuous temper and their command of money beyond the discretion of their years. And while these are engaged in travel, what might they have been acquiring at home? Sounder learning, the same study of language, and, above all, the love of their native land, which groweth by familiarity, but is mightily impaired by absence and an acquired fancy for foreign customs.

What is the natural end of being born in a particular country? To serve one’s fatherland. With foreign fashions? They will not fit. For every country has its own appropriate laws and arrangements, and its special circumstances can be understood only by those who study its constitution carefully on the spot. What is quite suitable and excellent for other nations may not bear transplanting here; it may not fit in with the habits of our people, or at least the change might require so much effort that it would not be worth the cost. I do not deny that travel is good, if it hits on the right person; though I think the same labour, with equally good intentions, could be spent with better results at home. He that roameth abroad hath no such line to lead him as he that tarrieth at home, unless his understanding, years and experience offer better security than is the case with those of whom I am now speaking. Foreign things fit us not; or, if they fit our backs, at least they do not fit our brains, unless there be something amiss there. If we wish to learn from other countries, it is better to summon a foreign master to us than to go abroad as foreign scholars ourselves.

Our ladies at home can acquire all the accomplishments of these travelled gentlemen without stirring abroad, for it is not what one has seen that is of value, but the languages and learning that are brought back, and these are to be found at home. Our lady mistress, whom I must needs remember when excellence is being spoken of, a woman, a gentlewoman, a lady, a princess, in the midst of many other affairs of business, in spite of her sex and sundry impediments to a free mind such as learning requireth, can do all these things to the wonder of all hearers, which I say young gentlemen can learn better at home, as Her Majesty did. It may be said that Her Majesty is not to be used as a precedent, seeing she is of a princely courage that would not be overthrown by any difficulty in learning what might advance her person beyond all praise, and help her position beyond expectation. But yet it may be said, why may not young gentlemen, who can allege no obstacle, obtain with more liberty what Her Highness got with so little? It is having as much money as they like that eggs them on to wander. If they went abroad as ambassadors to acquire experience through dealing with great affairs, or if they were well known as learned men to whom important information would everywhere naturally be offered, or if they even went in the train of the former, or under the tuition of the latter, so that authority might secure benefits for them and preserve them from harm, I would not disapprove of it, as they might then learn to follow in the footsteps of their leaders. But this is a very different matter from the pursuit of those special ends that could be better attained at home. For good, simple, well-meaning young gentlemen, strong in purse and weak in years, to travel at a venture in places where there is danger to health, to life, to conduct, far from the chances of succour and rescue—the thought is so repugnant to me that I know not what to say.

Gentlemen should take up the Professions.

I do wish then that well-disposed young gentlemen would be pleased to betake themselves betimes to some kind of learning that is indeed liberal, seeing that their circumstances protect them from interested motives, and enable them to serve their country honourably. Instead of all becoming lawyers or court officials, why do not some of them choose to be divines, or physicians, or to take up some other learned profession? Any gentleman in our country who is now so qualified is esteemed and honoured above all others of his calling, and indeed gets some honour even if he is not particularly well qualified. Are not these professions to be reverenced for their subject-matter and for their influence? And are they not therefore proper for the nobility? I do not hold the conduct of barbarous invasions to be the true field of activity for the nobility; they should be for the most part peaceful, and warlike only for defence if the country be assailed, or for attack if previous wrongs are to be avenged. Nor do I take wealth to be any worthy cause of honour to the owner, unless it be both got by laudable means and employed in commendable ways, nor any quality or gift that adorns the body, unless it serves a good purpose, nor any endowment of the mind which is not exercised in conformity with reason and wisdom. Such gifts are demanded in the callings I have named as worthy of the nobility. Who dare think lightly of divinity in itself? There is more hesitation now about adopting it as a profession than formerly, when the emoluments were greater, and the dignity more generally recognised, but the position grows better again, and a good gentleman may find in it the honour which he seeks. As for medicine, if gentlemen will not study and practise it, they must pay the penalty of ignorance, as they will suffer in their own bodies as well as in their pockets by leaving the profession to those of meaner rank, whose attendance is often rather flattering and fawning than intelligent services. This caution, however, young gentlemen must bear in mind, that it were a great deal better they had no learning at all and knew their own ignorance, than a mere smattering, incomplete of its kind, and insecurely held in their minds. For their acknowledged ignorance harms only themselves, as others more skilful may supply their places, but unripe learning puffeth them up, and their rank encourages them to be superficial, either in not digesting what they have read, or in not reading sufficiently, or in doing desultory work, or presuming on their station to defend ill-considered notions. To conclude, I wish young gentlemen to be better than ordinary men in the best kind of learning, as they have ampler opportunities of acquiring it and turning it to good account for the benefit of their country and their own honour.

The Training of a Prince.

As a child, the greatest prince may be, like other children, in soul either fine or gross, in body either strong or weak, in form either well-developed or ill, so that in regard to the time for beginning to learn and the proper course of study, he is no less subject to the general laws already laid down than his subjects are. We must take him as God sends him, for we cannot choose as we would wish, just as he must make the best of his people, though his people be not the best. When the young prince’s elementary education is past, and there is more scope for reading, care must be taken to choose such matter as may recommend humility as well as afford adequate knowledge, so that competence in affairs may be supported by the gift of courteous persuasion. Intercourse with foreign ambassadors, and conference with his own counsellors, require both a knowledge of tongues and a knowledge of the matters that come under discussion. And as he governeth his State by means of his two arms, the ecclesiastical, which preserves and purifies religion, the main support of voluntary obedience, and the political, which by maintaining the civil government doth keep order and diffuse well-being, if he lack knowledge to use his arms aright, is he not more than lame? And is not his best help to be found in learning? Martial skill is needful, but only for defence, because a stirring prince, always ready to make aggression, is a plague to his people and a punishment to himself, and even when he seems to gain most, is only getting what he or his descendants must some day lose again with perhaps something in addition. But religious knowledge is far more important, being specially necessary for a prince, inasmuch as he hath none but God to fear. Almighty God be thanked who hath at this day lent us a Princess who indeed feareth Him, and who therefore, deserving to be loved, desires not to be feared by us. I pray God long to preserve her whose good education doth teach us what education can do, and I have good cause to rejoice that this work of mine concerning education is given forth in her time.

Boarding Schools.

I turn to the question whether it is better for a child to board with his master or elsewhere, or to come from home daily to school. If the place where the parents dwell be near the school, or only so far off that the very walk may be for the boy’s health, and if the parent himself be careful and wise to be as good a furtherer in the training of his own child as he is a father to its being, then certainly the parent’s home is much better, if for nothing else, yet because the parent can more easily at all times look after the interests of his own, having only one or a few, than the schoolmaster can after his ordinary duties are over, especially as he will have to divide his attention among many. Further, all the considerations which persuade people rather to have their children taught at home than along with others outside, especially with regard to their manners and behaviour, form arguments for their at least boarding at home, if the parents will take their position seriously, because the parent can both see to the upbringing of the child outside school and interest himself in the work done by the child in school. For undoubtedly the masters are wearied with working all day, so that the individual help they can give in their homes in the evening can be but little, without at once tiring the master unduly and dulling the child, if he is always poring over his books. There must be times for recreation if anything is to be well done continuously. Can anyone help thinking that it is a great deal more than enough for the master to teach, and the scholar to learn, daily from 6 in the morning till 11, and from 1 in the afternoon till wellnigh 6 at night, if the time is to be really well applied—nay, even if the hours were a great deal fewer? And may not the rest of the day be reasonably spent in some recreation that offers a pleasant variety to both parties? In the master’s home I grant children may keep school hours better, and be less liable to idleness and truancy; the master also may keep them better under his eye in his general teaching when they are wholly under his care in place of his own children, may arrange their hours better according to the subjects they are studying, and may sooner be able to discover their special talents and inclinations. There are also certain private considerations that have weight with parents in sending their children to board away from home, which I leave to their private thoughts, as I reserve some to my own. If the master have charge only of the scholars who board with him, and can himself do all that is necessary for the best education, and the numbers be moderate enough to allow of considerable progress, then I know of no more favourable circumstances, if the size, situation, and convenience of his house, and other necessary conditions are all suitable. But while he is thinking only of his boarders’ advancement, some slow-paying parents will be sure to keep him lean, if he look not well to it, and his fortunes will not flourish, or at least the risks will cause him continual anxiety. Parents have a different eye to their children’s comfort when they are at a boarding-school, and are ready to complain of many things that are made of no account at home. And if sickness or death should come, the worst construction is put upon it, as if death did not know where the parent dwells. And though the master should have done not only what he was formally bound to do, but even more than he could have done for his own child, yet all that is nothing. Wherefore, as parents must think of the objection on their side to sending out their children to board, so masters on their part must beware of admitting them to their own injury. Indeed, my own opinion is that it is quite enough for a master to undertake the education alone. If parents do not live near enough to the school, they should board their children elsewhere than with the master. They are distinct offices, to be a parent and a teacher, and the difficulties of upbringing are too serious for all the responsibilities to be thrown into the hands of one alone.

School Buildings.

Of the places of elementary education there is not much to say, as the masters supply rooms as large as they can, considering the fees that the parents are willing to pay, and the little people who attend these schools are not as yet capable of any great exercise. The Grammar Schools require more attention, because the years that are, or at least ought to be, spent there are the most important both for developing the body and for framing the mind and character. Here the pupils are most subject to the master’s direction, and provision is made for them not only out of the parents’ resources, but also from public endowment, so far as the buildings are concerned. As the elementary schools must be near the parents’ homes on account of the youth of the scholars, they must often be in the middle of cities and towns, but I could wish that the Grammar Schools were planted in the outskirts and suburbs, near to the fields, where partly by enclosing some private ground for regular exercises both in the open and under cover, and partly by utilising the open fields for rambles of wider range, there might be little or no feeling of restriction in the matter of space. There should be a good airy schoolroom above for the languages, and another below for others studies and for continuing and completing the elementary training, which will not be well enough kept up if it is left to private practice at home. There must also be suitable accommodation for the master and his family, even if they be pretty numerous, and there should be a convenient play-ground adjoining the school, walled round and having at least a quarter of the space covered over like a cloister, for the children’s exercise in rainy weather. All this will require no mean purse, but surely there is wealth enough in private possession, if there were will enough to endow public education. Yet we have no great cause to complain in regard to the number of schools and founders, for already during the time of Her Majesty’s most fortunate reign there have been more schools erected than existed before her time in the whole kingdom. I would rather have fewer and have them better appointed for the master’s accommodation and for general convenience. A small amount of help will make most of our rooms serve, and enable our teachers to give instruction and carry on the exercises under satisfactory conditions. The places for study and for exercise ought to adjoin each other, and be capable of holding considerable numbers, to be determined by the needs of the surrounding district. The schools that I know are mostly well placed already, or if they are in the heart of towns, they could be easily exchanged for some country situation, far from disturbances yet near enough to all necessary conveniences. It would be a very useful part of a great and good foundation if it provided for the removal of rooms to more suitable places, either by exchange or by new purchase, and I think licence would more readily be granted for this purpose than to build new schools. I am all the more impelled to recommend a country situation on account of the inconveniences that I have myself experienced, both in regard to my own health and that of my scholars, and the lack of facilities for the exercises on which I lay so much store. Yet I am by no means the worst off in this respect, owing to the zeal and generosity shown in the provision made by the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors in London, in whose school I have now served for twenty years, the first and only headmaster since its foundation. If ye consider what is to be done in these rooms which I desire, ye shall better judge what rooms will serve. Two rooms will be sufficient for the language study and the continuation of the elementary course, an upper room with proper arrangements for ventilation and the prevention of too much noise, and another similarly fitted up underneath to serve for what else is to be done. I could wish that we had fewer schools and that they were more efficient; it would be well if on careful consideration of the most convenient centres throughout the country, many of the existing schools could be put together to make a few good ones. To conclude this matter, I wish the rooms to be commodious, for though such studies as reading require small elbow-room, writing and drawing must not be straitened, nor music either, and physical exercises especially must have ample scope. And such rooms, if the numbers are not too large, if the distance is not too great for the young children, will with some distinction and separation of places serve conveniently both for the elementary school and the grammar school, which is so much the better.

Best Hours for Study.

I think it is not good to begin study immediately after rising, or just after meals, or to continue right up to the time of going to bed. From 7 to 10 in the forenoon, and from 2 till almost 5 in the afternoon are the most fitting hours, and quite enough for children to be learning. The morning hours will serve best for memory work and what requires mental effort; the afternoon for going over again the material that has been already acquired. The other times before meals are for exercise. The hours after meals and before study is resumed, are to be given to resting the body and refreshing the mind, without too much movement. To conclude, we must make the best of those places and hours that are at present appointed, and yet be prepared to adopt better arrangements, as soon as it shall please God to send them. And by persuasion some teachers may be able to bring wise parents to try changes in the direction I have pointed out. In the meantime some excellent man, having the advantage of a well-situated house, and being independent of outside help and able to control his own arrangements, may be prepared to make useful experiments.

Elementary Teacher most Important.

The Elementary school is left to the lowest and the worst class of teacher, because good scholars will not abase themselves to it. The first grounding should be undertaken by the best teacher, and his reward should be the greatest, because his work demands most energy and most judgment, and competent men could easily be induced to enter these lower ranks if they found that sufficient reward were offered. It is natural enough for ignorant people to make little of the early training, when they see how little consideration is paid to it, but men of judgment know how important the foundation is, not only as regards the matter that is taught, but the manner of handling the child’s intelligence, which is of great moment. But to say something concerning the teacher’s reward, which is the encouragement to good teaching, what is the sense in increasing the salary as the child grows in learning? Is it to cause the master to take greater pains, and bring his pupil better forward in view of the promise of what is to come? Nay, surely that cannot be. Present payment would be a greater inducement to bring pupils forward than the hope in promise, for in view of the variety and inconstancy of parents’ minds, what assurance is there that the child will continue with the same master? That he who took great pains for little gain should receive more for less trouble? Besides, if the reward were good he would hasten to gain more through the supply of new scholars, who would be attracted by the report of his diligent and successful work. As things are, the master who gets the pupils later reaps the benefit of the elementary teacher’s labour, because the child makes more show with him. Why should this be so? It is the foundation well and soundly laid that makes all the upper building secure and lasting. I can only give counsel, but if the decision lay with me the first pains well taken should in truth be most liberally recompensed, and the emolument should diminish, as less pains are needed in going up through the school course. By this method no master would have reason to complain that the pupils who come to him have not been sufficiently grounded in the elementary subjects, which is a constant source of trouble at present both to teachers and scholars. Indeed too often we Grammar School masters can hardly make any progress, can scarcely even tell how to place the raw boys in any particular form with any hope of steady advance, so rotten is the groundwork of their preparation. If the higher master has to repair this weakness, after the boy comes under his charge, he certainly deserves triple salary, both for his own making and for mending what the elementary teacher either marred through ignorance, or failed to make through undue haste, which, in my opinion, is the commonest and worst kind of marring. As for the salaries of the masters that succeed the elementary, I hold that the increasing numbers that they can undertake will make up for the larger amount to be given to the elementary teacher, however much that may be. For the first master can deal only with a few, the next with more, and so on, ascending as the scholars grow in reason and discretion. To deal with the unequal advancement of children, it were good that they were promoted in numbers together, and that they were admitted into the schools only at four periods in the year, so that they might be properly classified, and not hurled hand over head into one form without discrimination, as is now too often the case. There should be a definite plan of promotion agreed upon among the teachers, so that one can say, “This child I have taught, and such and such can he do,” and the other knoweth what the child should have been taught, and what he may be supposed to know. The elementary teacher, then, should be competent for his task, and when he is, he should be sufficiently well provided for by the parents. Adequate reward would make very able men incline to take it up, and though the supply may as yet be insufficient, enough could soon be trained if inducement were offered.

The Grammar School Teacher.

My chief concern must be with the master of the Grammar School, who cannot be too carefully selected, for he has to deal with those years which determine the success of all the future course, as during this period both body and mind are most restless and most in need of regulation. He has to complete the learning gained in the elementary studies, and he offers hope or despair of perfection to the University tutor in the case of their proceeding further.

For this class of teacher also I must ask for sufficient maintenance in consideration of their competence and faithful work. For it is a great discouragement to an able man to take diligent pains when he finds his whole day’s work insufficient to furnish him with the necessary provision. Experience hath taught me that where the master’s salary is made to rise and fall with the numbers of his pupils, he will exert himself most, and the children will profit most, provided he have no more than he can manage himself without hazarding his own credit and the pupils’ welfare by trusting to independent assistants. The proper use of assistants is not as we now see it in schools, where ushers are their own masters, but to help the headmaster in the easier part of his duties. If the master’s salary is fixed by agreement at a definite sum, then he should not be given too large numbers to deal with, nor should he be obliged to eke out his income in other ways outside his profession. It is unreasonable to demand a man’s whole time, and yet make such scant payment that he has to look elsewhere, outside the school, to add to it. Among many causes that make our schools inefficient, I know none so serious as the weakness of the profession owing to the bareness of the reward. The good that cometh by schools is infinite; the qualities required in the teacher are many and great; the charges which his friends have been at in his bringing up are heavy; yet he has but little to hope for in the way of preferment. Our calling creeps low, and has pain for a companion, always thrust to the wall, though always formally admitted to be worthy. Our comfort must be in the general conclusion that those are good things which want no praising, though they go a-cold for lack of cherishing.

But ye will perhaps say—what shall this man be able to perform whom you are so anxious to have suitably maintained, and to whose charge the youth of our country is to be committed? Surely that charge is great, and if he is to discharge it well, he must be well qualified for it, and ought to be very well requited for doing it so well. Besides his manner and behaviour, which must be beyond cavil, and his skill in exercising the body, he must be able to teach the three learned tongues, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, if these are required. And in these a mediocrity of knowledge is not enough, for he who means to plant even a little well, must himself far exceed mediocrity. He must be able to understand his author, to correct misprints, the mistakes of unskilful dictionaries, and the foolish comments of superficial writers on the matter he is teaching, and he must be so well furnished before he begins to teach that he can express himself readily, and not have to be learning as he goes along, distracting his scholars by his hesitations. Time and experience will do much to polish the manner of teaching, but there must be knowledge of the matter from the first. He must be acquainted with all the best grammars, so that he can always add notes by the way, though not of course to the burdening of the children’s memory. Besides these and other points of learning, he must have determination to take pains, perseverance to continue in his work without shrinking, discretion to judge of circumstances, cheerfulness to delight in the success of his labour, sympathy to encourage a promising youth, hopefulness to think every child an Alexander, and courteous lowliness in his opinion of himself. For even the smallest thing in learning will be well done only by him who knows most, and by reason of his store of knowledge is able to perform his task with pleasure and ease. These qualities deserve much, and are not often found in our schools, because the rewards of labour are so insufficient, but they would soon be had if the maintenance were adequate.

The Training of Teachers.

If the rewards of the teaching profession were sufficient to attract good students, the way to make them well fitted to deserve these rewards would be to arrange for their being trained at the Universities. I touch upon this matter with some hesitation, for it would involve some changes that might not be easily compassed, but if the very name of change is to be avoided, no improvements could ever take place, and though my proposals may raise objections at first, I believe that the more they are considered the more they will commend themselves, as well to the University authorities as to all others concerned. By the means I am about to suggest, not only schoolmasters, but all other members of the learned professions, would be better fitted on leaving the University to perform what is expected of them in the service of the commonwealth. I would have it understood that I have no great fault to find with the present constitution of the Universities, but granting that things are well done there already, there is no discourtesy in wishing that they might be managed a good deal better.

University Reform.

My idea rests on four points;

1st. What if the Colleges were divided into faculties according to the professions for which they prepare?

2nd. What if students of similar age, who were studying for the same profession, were all bestowed in one house?

3d. What if the College livings were made more valuable by combination, and the Colleges strengthened by being lessened in number?

4th. What if in every house there were valuable fellowships for learned scholars who would remain their whole lives in the position?

Would not the country benefit by these measures? And hath not the State authority to carry them out, seeing that it hath already given its sanction to the making of foundations, with a reservation of the right to alter them if sufficient cause should be shown? Is it not as admissible to discuss the improvement of the Universities by planting sound learning, as to decide upon taking away lands from colleges, and boarding out the students, because they cannot agree among themselves about the use of the endowments? Would there be any better means of giving a new and fairer aspect to the work of the Universities, and of bringing them into greater favour with the public? In the first erection of schools and colleges, private zeal inflamed good founders; in altering these for the better, the State, for considerations of public interest, may increase the advantage, without departing from the intention of the founders, who would have gladly welcomed any improvement. It is for each age under the spur of necessity to point out what is best for its own circumstances, and the State must exercise its wisdom and policy in bringing this about. I will now take up more fully the four points I have named, in the hope of offering reasons that may prove convincing.

A College for Languages.

Would it not be convenient and profitable if there were one college where nothing was professed but languages, to be thoroughly acquired as a means to further study within the university, and to public service outside? That being the professed end, and nothing else being dealt with there, would not a high standard of sufficiency be the better reached through general agreement? And would not daily conference and continuous application in the same subject be likely to secure efficiency? As it is now, when everyone deals confessedly with everything, no one can say with certainty, “Thus much can such a one do in this particular thing,” but he either speaks by conjecture that may often deceive even the speaker, or else out of courtesy which as often beguiles those who hear and believe. For where all exercises, conferences, and conversations, both public and private, are on the same subject, because the soil bringeth forth no other stuff, there must needs follow great perfection. When the tongues are thus separated from other learning, it will soon appear what a difference there is between him who can only speak and him who can do more. No subject can be more necessary than languages in university training. For the tongues being the receptacles of matter, without a perfect understanding of them what hope is there of understanding matter? And seeing words are the names of things, applied and given according to their properties, how can things be properly understood by us, who make use of words to know them by, unless the force of speech is thoroughly understood? I do see in writers and hear in speakers great defects in the mistaking of meanings, and evident errors through insufficiency in the study of language. Such study should be well advanced by the Grammar School, but it needs to be brought to greater perfection than it can be there. And it may be that some, wishing only a general culture, will be content to rest in this literary faculty, taking delight in the writings of the poets and historians, and not passing on to any professional study.

A College for Mathematics.

I would have another college devoted to the Mathematical Sciences, though I shall be opposed by some of good intelligence, who not knowing the force of these faculties because they considered them unworthy of study, as not leading to preferment, are accustomed to mock at mathematical heads. Such studies require concentration, and demand a type of mind that does not seek to make public display until after mature contemplation in solitude. It is this silent meditation on the part of the true students, or the appearance of it in those that are but counterfeits, that layeth them open to the mockery of some, who should rather forbear if they will remember in what high esteem those sciences were held by Socrates, and by Plato, who forbad anyone to enter his Academy that was ignorant of Geometry. For the men who profess these sciences and bring them into disrepute are either quite ignorant and maintain their credit by the use of certain terms and technical expressions without ever getting at the kernel, or they are such as having some knowledge occupy themselves with the trivial and sophistical and illusive parts of the subject, rather than with its true uses in the advancement of the arts. But in spite of the contempt which is thus often brought on the Mathematical Sciences, I will venture to give my opinion in defence of their value. In time all learning may be brought into one tongue, and that naturally understood by all, so that schooling for tongues may prove needless, just as once they were not needed; but it can never fall out that arts and sciences in their essential nature shall be anything but most necessary for every commonwealth that is not utterly barbarous. We attribute too much to tongues, in paying more heed to them than we do to matter, and esteem it more honourable to speak finely than to reason wisely. After all, words are praised only for the time, but wisdom wins in the end.

The Mathematical Sciences show themselves in many professions and trades which do not bear the titles of learning, whereby it is well seen that they are really profitable; they do not make much outward show, but our daily life benefits greatly by them. It is no just objection to ask, “What should merchants, carpenters, masons, shipmasters, mariners, surveyors, architects, and other such do with learning? Do they not serve the country’s needs well enough without it?” Though they may do well without it, might they not do better with it? The speaking of Latin is no necessary proof of deeper learning, but Mathematics are the first rudiments for young children, and the sure means of direction for all skilled workmen, who without such knowledge can only go by rote, but with it might reach genuine skill. The sciences that we term ‘mathematical’ from their very nature always achieve something good, intelligible even to the unlearned, by number, figure, sound, or motion. In the manner of their teaching also they plant in the mind of the learner a habit of resisting the influence of bare probabilities, of refusing to believe in light conjectures, of being moved only by infallible demonstrations. Mathematics had its place before the tongues were taught, which though they are now necessary helps, because we use foreign languages for the conveyance of knowledge, yet push us one degree further off from knowledge.

A College for Philosophy.

The third college should be devoted to Philosophy in all its three kinds, each of which forms a preparation for a particular profession—Natural Philosophy for Medicine, Political Philosophy for Law, and Moral Philosophy for Divinity. But in this distribution some will ask, “Where do Logic and Rhetoric come in?” I would ask in reply, “What is the place of Grammar?” It is the preparative to language. In the same way, Logic on the side of demonstration takes the part of Grammar for the Mathematical Sciences and Natural Philosophy, and in its consideration of probabilities fills the same place for Moral and Political Philosophy. Rhetoric helps the writer to attain purity of style without emotion, and the speaker to use persuasion with an appeal to the feelings, though sometimes, indeed, the latter deals only in argument, while the former may wax hot over his writing. As to the proper order of these studies, we are accustomed to set young students to Moral and Political Philosophy first, but we should rather follow Aristotle in placing Natural Philosophy next to the Mathematical Sciences, because it is more intelligible for young heads on account of its deductive reasoning, whereas Moral and Political Philosophy, being subject to particular circumstances in life, should be reserved for riper years.

Professional Colleges.

The three professions above mentioned—Medicine, Law, and Divinity—should each be endowed with its particular College and livings, instead of having its students scattered. To have the physician thus learned is not too much to ask, considering that his proficiency depends on his knowledge, and with him ignorance is simply butchery. As for Law, if the whole study were reduced into one body, would our country have any cause to complain? Would she not rather have great reason to be very glad? We have now three several professions in Law, as if we were a three-headed State, one English and French, another Roman Imperial, and the third Roman Ecclesiastical, whereas English alone were simply best. The distraction of temporal, civil, and canon law is in many ways very injurious to our country. There can be no question that it is good for the divine to have time to study the sciences that are the handmaids to his profession.

General Study for Professional Men.

But is it advisable that those wishing to enter the professions should have to go through all the colleges that offer a general preparatory training,—the colleges for Languages, Mathematics, and Philosophy? No one could doubt this, except such as are ready to think themselves ripe, while they are still raw in the opinion of other men. He that will be perfect in his profession ought at least to have a contemplative knowledge of all that goes before. It will be for the gain of the community that while the student’s youth is wedded to honest and learned meditation, the heat of that stirring age is cooled, which might set all on fire to the public harm; ripe judgment is gained, and all ambitious passions are made subject to self-control. Till young men who are coming forward to the professions are made to tarry longer and study more soundly, learning shall have no credit, and our country cannot but suffer. It may be asked: “What hath a divine to do with Mathematics?” Well, was not Moses trained in all the learning of the Egyptians? How can the divine presume to judge and condemn sciences of which he knows nothing but the name? And has not the lawyer to deal with many questions that require a knowledge of the sciences? The physician more than all should see that his professional skill is supported by a wide general study.

A Training College for Teachers.

There will be some difficulty in winning a college for those who will afterwards pass to teach in schools. There is no specialising for any profession till the student leaves the College of Philosophy, from which he will go to Medicine, Law, or Divinity. This is the time also when the intending schoolmaster should begin his special training. In him there is as much learning necessary as, with all deference to their subjects, is required by any of the other three professions, especially if it be considered how much the teacher hath to do in preparing scholars for all other careers. Why should not these men have this competence in learning, to be chosen for the common service? Are children and schools so small an element in our commonwealth? Is the framing of young minds and the training of their bodies a matter of so little skill? Are schoolmasters in this realm so few that they need not be taken account of? Whoever will not allow of this careful provision for such a seminary of teachers is most unworthy either to have had a good master himself, or to have a good one hereafter for his children. Why should not teachers be well provided for, so that they can continue their whole life in the school, as divines, lawyers, and physicians do in their several professions? If this were the case, judgment, knowledge, and discretion would grow in them as they get older, whereas now the school, being used but for a shift, from which they will afterwards pass to some other profession, though it may send out competent men to other careers, remains itself far too bare of talent, considering the importance of the work. I consider therefore that in our universities there should be a special college for the training of teachers, inasmuch as they are the instruments to make or mar the growing generation of the country, and because the material of their studies is comparable to that of the greatest professions, in respect of language, judgment, skill in teaching, variety of learning, wherein the forming of the mind and the exercising of the body require the most careful consideration, to say nothing of the dignity of character which should be expected from them.

Use of the Seven Colleges.

Surely there is nothing unreasonable in proposing that these seven colleges should be set up, and should have the names of the things they profess—Languages, Mathematics, Philosophy, Education, Medicine, Law, and Divinity. If it had been so arranged from the beginning, public opinion would now have commended the policy and wisdom of those that originated it. And can we not bring about still what, if it had been done at first, would have met with such honour, and will deserve everlasting memory, at whatever time it may be done? Greater changes have been both desired and accomplished in our time. All that is needful for doing it well is ready to our hand: the material is there; the lands have neither to be begged nor purchased; they have already been acquired and given, and can easily be brought into order, especially as this is a time of reform. As for putting students of similar age and studies into the same house, it is desirable on many grounds, but particularly because it encourages emulation among those who are best fitted to compete with each other.

Uniting of Colleges.

In saying that colleges should be combined, so as to permit the bettering of students’ livings, I shall have the support at least of those who are now willing to change their college for a fatter living, or even to abandon the university altogether for their own advantage. At present college livings are certainly too lean, and force good wits to fly before they are well feathered. A better maintenance would give more time and opportunity for study, and thus secure a higher standard of learning, greater ripeness of judgment, and more solidity of character. Students would be made more independent, and would not have to come under obligations by accepting support from other quarters. The restriction in the number of livings would be no objection, as it would shut out those less qualified to profit by them, and thus raise the level of attainment. It were better for the country to have a few well trained and sufficiently provided for, than an unlearned multitude. Moreover, it is not consonant with the liberal nature of learning either that it should be unnecessarily dependent on charity, or that it should in this way come under the control of those who may act rather from personal considerations than regard to the common welfare. Where learning grows up by props it loses its true character; it is best when the stem can itself bear up the branches. The outward conditions for the furtherance of learning are the selection of scholars on grounds of ability and promise, and sufficient time and maintenance for their due preparation; the qualities required for the student himself are diligence and discretion to profit fully by his opportunities.

University Readers.

The last reform which I am ready to contend for is that there should be University readers appointed, of mature years, accredited learning and secure position, who should direct and control the studies of the students. Private study alone can never be compared with the opportunity of working under one who has read and digested all the best books in the subject, whose judgment has been formed by his wide reading, and whose experience and intercourse with many intellects has given him skill and address. The student who has not this advantage will gain less with greater pains, since he could in one lecture have the benefit of his reader’s universal study, put in such a form that he can use it at once. Such readers would save their cost in books alone, which would not then be so needful to the student. They could be appointed with little or no cost to the universities, and if they carried on their work in convenient houses of their own, they would undoubtedly draw as many students to their private establishments as there are now in the public colleges.

Evils of Overpressure.

Hasty pressing onward is the greatest enemy that anything can have, whose best is to ripen at leisure. I have appointed in my elementary teaching—Reading, Writing, Drawing, Singing, Playing. Now if these are imperfectly acquired when the child is sent to the Grammar School, what an error is committed! How many small infants have we sent to Grammar who can scarcely read, and how many to learn Latin who never wrote a letter! Even though some youngster could do much better than all his companions, it were no harm for him to be captain a good while in his elementary school, rather than to be a common soldier in a school where all are captains. Many and serious are the evils that are caused by such hasting, and if deploring them could amend them, I would lament that they are so numerous and so hard to remedy. How common is the lack of proper grounding in children, and how great is the foolishness of their friends in regard to it! This is the chief cause that at once makes children loth to learn, and schoolmasters seem harsh in their teaching. For as the master hastens on to the natural aim of his profession, and the scholar draws back, being unable to bear the burden, there rises in the master an irritation which can only be controlled by the wisdom and patience that are the fruits of experience. And as in the teacher irritation breeds heat, so in the scholar weakness breeds fear, and so much the more if he finds his master somewhat too impatient, wherefore neither the one nor the other can do much good at all. Whereas if the boy had nothing to fear, how eager he would be, and what a pleasure the teacher would take in his aptness to learn! But even if the child’s weakness is felt both by himself and by his teacher, it is difficult to get the parent to believe in it, owing to the blindness of his affection, and he will prefer to seek out some other teacher who will adopt his views, and undertake the task. Thus change feeds his humour for the time, though he will afterwards repent his folly, when the defect proves incurable, and the first master is at last admitted to have been a true prophet. So necessary a thing is it to prevent ills in time, and when warning is given not to laugh it to scorn nor blame the watchman.

If the imperfections which come more from haste than from ignorance did not go beyond the elementary school, the harm done might be redressed, but as one billow driveth on another, so haste, beginning there, makes the other successions in learning move on at too headlong a pace. Is it only to the Grammar School that children are sent too early? Are there none sent to the University who, when they come out of it years afterwards, might with advantage return to the Grammar School again? Do not some of good intelligence find in the course of their study the evil effects of too great haste at the beginning, and wish too late that they had been better advised? And even if they make up what they have missed, do they not find it true that a process which may be pleasant enough to young boys is full of pain for older people? The Universities can best judge of the weaknesses of our Grammar Schools when they find the defects of those youths whom they receive from us, though they were not sent by us. We see these defects ourselves, but we cannot remedy them, for the partiality of parents over-rules all reason, and when the pupil is removed all conference with the teacher is cut off. In some places the multitude of schools mars the whole market, giving too great opportunity for change, generally for the worse, so that by degrees the elementary scholar enfeebles the Grammar School boy, and he in turn transporteth his weakness from his schoolmaster to his university tutor. So important is it to avoid haste at the first, lest it cause injury to the last.

Are not youths often sent into the world, who may receive consideration on account of their degrees, but deserve none for their learning? If men did not judge sensibly that young shoots must be green, however good an appearance they may make, youth might deceive them with its titles, as it deceives itself with conceit. The causes of haste are—impatience, which can abide no tarrying when a restless conceit is overladen; the desire of liberty, to live as he pleases, because he pleases not to live as he should; arrogance, making him wish to appear a person of importance; hope of preferment, urging him to desire dignities before the ability to support them. In the meanwhile the common welfare is sacrificed to personal advantage, and even that advantage is in appearance and not in reality. The canker that consumeth all, and causeth all this evil, is haste, an ill-advised, rash, and headstrong counsellor, that is most pernicious when there is either some appearance of ripeness in the child, or some unwise encouragement from a teacher who is without true discernment. It is time that perfecteth all; it is the mother of truth, the touchstone of ripeness, the enemy of error, the true support and help of man.

Limit of Elementary Course.

When the child can read so readily and confidently that the length of his lesson gives him no trouble; when he can write so neatly and so fast that he finds no kind of exercise tedious; when his pen or pencil gives him only pleasure; when his music, both vocal and instrumental, is so far forward that a little voluntary practice may keep it up and even improve it; then the elementary course has lasted long enough. The child’s ordinary exercises in the Grammar School will continue his reading and writing and he will always be drawing of his own accord, because it delighteth his eye, and busieth not his brain. His music, however, must be encouraged by the pleasure taken in it by the teacher and his parents, for in those early years children are musical rather for others’ benefit than for their own. It is certain that in tarrying long enough to bring all these things to perfection there is no real loss of time, especially seeing that these attainments, even if they go no further, make a pretty adornment to a household if they be thoroughly acquired.

Difficulties in Teaching.

A great and learned man of our day, Philip Melancthon, thought so much of the troublesome and toilsome life which we teachers lead that he wrote an interesting book on the miseries of schoolmasters. We have to thank him for his good-will; but as there is no kind of life, be it high or low, that has not its own share of troubles, we need not be overwhelmed by a sense of our special difficulties. Our profession is certainly more arduous than most; but, on the other hand, not many have such opportunities of doing good service. There is little profit, however, in such comparisons. To what purpose should I show why the teacher blames one thing, the parent another, the child nothing but the rod which he is so prone to deserve? So apt are we to repine at the pain we suffer, without weighing the offence which deserved it. I will rather proceed to deal with the remedies for what he calls “miseries,” but I would prefer to term inconveniences, with which the teaching profession has to contend in our own time. The counsel I offer, though referring specially to the youngest scholars, may well be carried further and applied to the oldest and most advanced in any course of learning. The remedies I take to be two—uniformity of method, which would secure economy both of time and expense, and the establishment of public school regulations, made clearly known to all concerned, which would prevent misunderstandings between teachers and parents or scholars.

Uniformity of Method.

No one who has either taught, or has been taught himself, can fail to recognise that there is too much variety in teaching, and therefore too much bad teaching, for in the midst of many by-paths there is but one right way. This is proved by the differences of opinion that men show, due to better or worse training in youth, to greater or less application to study, to longer or shorter continuance at their books, to their liking or disliking some particular kind of learning, and many other similar causes, which may lead ignorance to vaunt itself with all the authority that belongs to sound knowledge. The diversity of groundwork which lies at the root of so much confusion of judgment is a great hindrance to youth and a discredit to schools, and causes serious inequalities in the universities. It may happen that a weak teacher by some accident brings up a strong scholar, and that an abler man owing to some ordinary hindrance makes little show for his labour. But if variety had given place to uniformity, even the weakest teacher might have done very well, if he had the intelligence to follow the directions put before him.

This defect has often been deplored by our best teachers, who have nevertheless shrunk from the task of supplying the remedy. If a uniform system could be agreed upon, all the youth of this whole realm will seem to have been brought up in one school, and under one master, both in regard to the matter and to the manner of their teaching, while differing in their own invention, which is individual by nature, though it may be trained by general rules of art. Such a measure must needs bring profit to the learner by saving him from the chances of going astray, ease to the teacher by lightening his labour, honour to the country by providing a store of good material, and immortal renown to the enlightened sovereign who should confer so great a benefit. Though agreement in a uniform method must be enforced by authority, it must be based on some likeness of ability in teachers in regard to their own specialty, though they may differ much in the manner of applying it and in other qualities. Now the only way to procure this equal standard of efficiency, where natural differences are so great, is to lay down in some definite scheme what seems best, both as to what and as to how to teach, with all the particular circumstances that may apply to the best-ordered schools not beyond the reach of the indifferent teacher, yet such as to satisfy the more skilful. Thus diligence on the part of the less able may even effect more than the greater learning of the other, who may become negligent or insolent from over-confidence. If I am not mistaken, there are good reasons for holding that it is better for the commonwealth to provide some direction for the ordinary teacher who will continue in his profession the greater part of his life and have many chances of doing good, than to leave it at random to the liberty of the more learned, who commonly make use of teaching only to shift with for a time, and are but pilgrims in the profession, always thinking of removing to some easier or more profitable kind of life. Scholars cannot profit much when their teachers act like strangers, who, intending some day to return to their own country, cannot have that zealous care which the native showeth, and though conscience may sometimes cause an honest man to work well and do his duty in this temporary position, such cases can be only exceptional, and general provision must be for the leading of the weaker, who will always need it.

If when this scheme for settling the matter and the manner of teaching is set down, those who have to carry it out prove negligent, and delay or even defeat the good effects, by their ill-advised handling of what was well meant, the overseers and patrons of schools must bring pressure to bear on such teachers, of their own motion if they can, and if they cannot, then by the assistance of learned men who are competent to act, and who out of courtesy will help to further the end in view. Our precepts are general; the application must be made according to the circumstances of particular cases. I have only roughly indicated the purpose of uniformity in teaching, and the disjointing of skill by misordered variety, yet who is so blind as not to discern that the one removes the evils caused by the other, and thereby relieves the schools of many hindrances? Rapid progress in learning would at once follow, through the choice of the best and fittest authors from the first, the use of exercises adapted to the advancement of the child, and the teacher’s orderly procedure in general. By this means the scholar would not learn anything he ought to forget, or leave anything needful unlearned, through the ill-advised counsel of his teacher, and the teacher on his part would be saved from hurrying on too fast, or dwelling too long on one thing. The best course being hit upon at the first, as may be generally appointed, one thing helpeth another forward naturally, without forcing; what is first taught maketh way for what must follow next, and continual use will let nothing be forgotten which is once well got, and the gradual advance in learning will succeed in proportion, without loss of time or unnecessary labour either through lingering too long or hurrying on too fast. This result cannot possibly be brought about at present, while things are left to the discretion of teachers, of whom the most are not specially enlightened, and even the very best cannot always hit upon the most fruitful methods, and while the customary education is held as a sanction, alteration even for the better considered a heresy, and approval determined by personal prejudice. I do not touch upon any hindrances that cannot easily be removed, if the matter be taken in hand by authority; difficulties that belong to special circumstances must be dealt with at another time.

The lack of uniformity is clearly shown when children change both schools and teachers; either the new master thinks it some discredit to himself to begin where the old one left off, or disapproves of the choice that the previous teacher had made, or seeks to exalt himself by finding fault with the other, or else the arrangement of his school does not admit of a regular progression, every school having a plan of its own. Sometimes the boy not being properly grounded, either through the ignorance of his teachers or his own negligence, cannot easily be influenced for the better, or led to give up his own conceit of himself, and this generally happens when the parents are unreasonable and think their child disgraced if he is “put back,” as the phrase is, whereas in reality he is bid only to look back, to see that which he never saw and ought to have seen very thoroughly. This cause of disorder, proceeding from the parents, affecteth us all, causing great weakness and much failure of classification in the forms of our schools, whereas if there were a uniform order fixed by authority, however often the child may change, his advancement is easily tested, and the parents will have no pretext for discontent, when they see that the matter is fixed by public provision, and that there is no room for private partiality. At present the only thing that is uniform in our schools is the common grammar set forth by authority, the use of which confirms the opinion I have expressed, as regards both the policy of adopting it from the beginning, and the advantage of having something definitely decided to which we are all bound to agree. Whether the book now in use may be retained with some amendment, or should give place to one with a better method, is a matter for consideration, for all such books, serving for direction, must be fashioned to the matter which they seem to direct by rule and precept, existing as they do, not for their own sake, but as a means to an end. The experience of having a common grammar proves the value of uniformity, but it remains a matter of controversy whether it is itself the best possible grammar.

The second advantage of uniformity is the saving of expense. While it is left to the teacher’s liberty to make his own choice, both as to what book he shall use and what method he shall adopt, what with the variety of judgment and inequality of learning in teachers, which may be unified by authority, but will never be by consent, the parents’ purses are heavily taxed and poor men are sorely pinched. This is brought about both by the change of books, the master often reversing his former choice, and also by their number, every book being commended to the buyer which either maketh a fair show to be profitable, or is otherwise solicited to the sale owing to the need for disposing of an over-supply. Whatever is needful to be used in schools may be very well comprised in a small compass; one small volume may be compounded of the marrow of many, and the change need not be great. Nor yet hereby is any injury done to good writers, whose books may very well tarry for the ripeness of the reader, and the place that is due to them in the ordinary ascent of learning and study, according to their value and degree, so that they may win praise for their authors from those who are able to judge, and may bring profit to the student when he is able to understand and remember them.

Choice of School Books.

In our Grammar Schools we profess to teach the tongues, or rather to make a beginning with teaching them. Every subject that is treated in any tongue supplies the student with the terms that belong to it, which are most easily got up in connection with the matter. If, then, the scholar of the Grammar School be taught to write, speak, and understand readily in some well-chosen subject, the school has performed its duty in doing even so much, though the boy may not know all, or even most, of the words in the language, which is a matter for further study. Those that assign their tasks to Grammar School teachers recommend historians and poets, though they make some distinction of writers according to the tendency of their matter and the purity of their style. But what time is there in our schools to run over all these, or even to deal with a few of them thoroughly? Would it not be more creditable to our profession, and more convenient for the parents, to have a selection carefully made and printed by itself? And should not the most important books be left over to be taken in connection with the particular callings to which they refer? Let those who are gifted with imagination make a special study of the poets, and those who take most interest in the records of memorable deeds devote themselves to history. If men of greater learning have leisure and desire to read, they may use histories for pleasure as an after-dinner study, neither trying the brain nor proving tedious, since they cannot generally be accepted as a basis of judgment, because ignorance of the circumstances causes a difficulty in applying conclusions. They may also run through the poets when they are disposed to laugh, and to behold what bravery enthusiasm inspireth. For when poets write soberly and plainly, without attempting any illusion, they can scarcely be called poets, though they write in verse, but only when they cover a truth with a veil of fancy, and transfigure the reality. We should therefore cull out some of the best and most suitable for our introductory course, and leave all the rest for special students, and that not in the poets and histories alone, but also in all other books that are now admitted into our schools. Some very excellent passages, most eloquently and forcibly penned for the polishing of good manners and inducement to virtue, may be picked out of some of the poets, and from none more than Horace. But heed must be taken that we do not plant any poetic fury in the child’s disposition. For that impetuous imagination, where it already exists, is in itself too wayward, though it be not helped forward, and where it is not present it should in no case be forced. As for other writers, regard must be paid to the number and choice of their words, the smoothness and propriety of their composition, and the solid worth of their matter. Quintilian’s rule is the best, and should always be observed in choosing writers for children to learn, to pick out such as will feed the intelligence with the best material, and refine the tongue with the most polished style, so that we avoid alike trivial and unsuitable matter, however eloquently set forth, and what is rudely expressed, however weighty and wise it may be, reserving only those passages where the good tendency and intelligibility of the subject are clothed and honoured with refined and fitting language.

I intend myself, by the grace of God, to bestow some pains on this task, if I see any hope of my labour being encouraged. If any one else will take the matter up I am ready to stand aside and rejoice in his success; if none other will, then I trust my country will bear with me when I offer my dutiful service in so necessary a case. If any one of higher position should be inclined to resent my action, I must appeal to the public judgment, yet if such a one does not step forth and prove his own skill, he cannot complain if another speaks while he is silent. I crave the gentle and friendly construction of such as be learned, or love learning, and if I should have the misfortune to dissatisfy any in my work, I will do my best to improve it.

School Regulations.

The second remedy for the difficulties of teachers is to set forth the school regulations in a public place, where they may be easily seen and read, and to leave as little as possible uncertain which the parent ought to know, and out of which dissatisfaction may arise. For if at the first entry the parent agree to those arrangements which he sees set forth, so that he cannot afterwards plead either ignorance or disapproval, he cannot take offence if his child be forced to keep them in the form to which he consented. Yet when all is done there may be doubt about the interpretation of the rules. Wherefore the manner of teaching, the method of promotion, the times of admission, the division of numbers, the text-books, and all those matters into which uniformity can be introduced, being already known to be fixed by authority, as I trust they will be, or at least the arrangements being set down which the schoolmaster on his own judgment intends to keep, it will further remove the chance of contention between the teacher and the parents if it be also stated what are the regular hours of work, exceptions being made in special cases, and what will be the intervals for play, which indeed is very necessary, and not as yet sufficiently taken into account.

Punishments.

But the teacher must above all make clear what punishments he will use, and how much, for every kind of fault that shall seem punishable by the rod. For the rod can no more be spared in schools than the sword in the hand of the Prince. By the rod I mean some form of correction, to inspire fear. If that instrument be thought too severe for boys, which was not devised by our time, but received from antiquity, I will not strive with any man in its defence, if he will leave us some means for compelling obedience where numbers have to be taught together. Even in private upbringing, if the birch is wholly banished from the home, parents cannot have their will, whatever they may say. And if in men serious faults deserve and receive severe punishment, surely children cannot escape punishments which bring proportional unhappiness. And if parents were as careful to enquire into the reasons why their child has been beaten as they are ready to be unreasonably aggrieved, they might gain a great deal more for the child’s advantage, and the child himself would lose nothing by the parent’s assurance. But commonly in such cases rashness has its recompense, the error being seen when the mischief is incurable, and repentance is useless. Beating, however, must only be for ill-behaviour, not for failure in learning, and it were more than foolish to hide all faults and offences under the name of “not learning.” What would that child be without beating, who even with it can hardly be reclaimed, whose capacity is sufficient, the only hindrance lying in his evil disposition? The aim of our schools is learning; if it fails through negligence, punish the negligence, if by any other wilful fault, punish that fault. Let the teacher make it clear what the punishment is for, and leave as little as possible to the report of the child, who will always make the best of his own case, and will be sooner believed than even the best master, especially if his mother be his counsellor, or if his father be inconstant and without judgment.

The schoolmaster must therefore have a list made out of school faults, beginning with moral offences, such as swearing, disobedience, lying, stealing, and bearing false witness, and including also minor breaches of discipline, such as truancy and unpunctuality. To each of these should be apportioned a certain number of stripes, not many but unchangeable. The master should also try to secure that the fault should be confessed, if possible, without compulsion, and the boy clearly convicted by the verdict of his schoolfellows. For otherwise children will dispute the matter vigorously, relying on credulity and partiality at home. If any of their companions be appointed monitors—and such help must be had where the master cannot always be present himself—and take them napping, they will allege spite or some private grudge. And if the master use correction, to support the authority of his lieutenants, the culprit will complain at home that he hath been beaten without cause. If the master postpone punishment, the delay will serve them to devise some way of escape, in which they can count upon home support.

To tell tales out of school, which in olden times was held to be high treason, is now commonly practised in an unworthy way. There are so many petty stratagems and devices that boys will use to save themselves that the master must be very circumspect, and leave no appearance of impunity where a penalty is really deserved. It were indeed some loss of time for learning to spend any in beating if it did not seem to make for the improvement of manners and conduct. It is passing hard to reclaim a boy in whom long impunity hath grafted a careless security, or rather a sturdy insolence; and yet friends will urge that the boy should not be beaten for fear of discouraging him, though they will have cause to regret this afterwards. It is also not good after any correction to let children dwell too long on the pain they have suffered, lest it cause too much resentment, unless the parents are wise and steadfast; and indeed that child is happy who has such parents, and who lights as well on a skilful and discreet master who acts in harmony with them. “But certainly it is most true, whatever plausible arguments may be used in a contrary sense, that the determined master who can use the rod discreetly, though he may displease some who think all punishment indiscreet when it falls on their own children, doth perform his duty best, and will always bring up the best scholars. No master of any force of character can do other than well, where the parents follow the same treatment at home which the teacher does at school, and if they disapprove of anything, will rather make a complaint to the master privately than condole with their child openly, and in so doing bring about more mischief in one direction than they can do good in any other. The same faults must be faults at home which are faults at school, and must be followed by the same consequences in both places, so that the child’s good may be considered continuously as well in correction as in commendation.”

Those who write most strongly in favour of gentleness in education reserve a place for the rod, and we who frankly face the need for severity on occasion, recommend teachers to use courtesy towards their pupils whenever it is possible. The difference is that they seem to make much of courtesy, but are forced by the position to confess the need for the rod, while we, though accepting the necessity openly, are yet more inclined to gentleness than those who make greater professions in their desire to curry favour. I would rather hazard the reproach of being a severe master in making a boy learn what may afterwards be of service to him, even though he be negligent and unwilling at the time, than that he should lack any advantage when he is older, because I failed to make him learn, owing to my vain desire to be considered a courteous teacher. A schoolmaster, if he be really wise, will either prevent his pupils from committing faults, or when they are committed, will turn the matter to the best account, but in any case he must have full discretion given to him to use severity or gentleness as he thinks best, without any appeal. But I do think gentleness and courtesy towards children more needful than beating. I have myself had thousands of pupils passing through my hands whom I never beat, because they needed it not; but if the rod had not been in sight to assure them of punishment if they acted amiss, they might have deserved it. Yet in regard to those who came next to the best, I found that I would have done better if I had used more correction and less gentleness, after carelessness had got head in them. Wherefore, I must needs say that where numbers have to be dealt with, the rod ought to rule, and even where there are few, it ought to be seen, however hard this may sound. But the master must always have a fatherly affection even for the most unsatisfactory boy, and must look upon the school as a place of amendment, where failures are bound to occur.

Condition of Teachers.

Where the salary is sufficient, it is well for a schoolmaster to be married, for affection towards his own children will give him a more fatherly feeling towards others, and smallness of salary will make a single man remove sooner, as he has less to carry with him. An older teacher should be more fit to govern, being more constant and free from the levity of youth, and owing to the discretion and learning which years should bring with them.

When all is done, the poor teacher must be subject to as much as the sun is, in having to shine upon all, and see much more than he can amend. His life is arduous, and therefore he should be pitied; it is clearly useful, and therefore he should be cherished; it wrestles with unthankfulness above all measure, and therefore he should be comforted with all encouragement. One displeased parent will do more harm in taking offence at some trifle, than a thousand of the most grateful will ever do good, though it be never so well deserved. Such small recompense is given for the greater pains, the very acquaintance dying out when the child leaves the school, though with confessed credit and manifest profit. But what calling is there which has not to combat with discourtesies? Patience must comfort when difficulty discourageth, and a resolute mind is a bulwark to itself.

Consultation about Children.

Of all the means devised by policy and reflection to further the upbringing of children, as regards either learning or good habits, I see none comparable to these two—conference among all those who are interested in seeing children well brought up, and systematic constancy in carrying out what is so planned by general agreement, so that there shall be no changes except where circumstances demand it.

The conference of those interested in the upbringing of children may be of four kinds—between parents and neighbours, between teachers and neighbours, between parents and teachers, and between teachers and teachers. Under the term “neighbours” I include all strangers who are moved either by duty or courtesy to help in the training of children. Now if parents are willing to take counsel with such, they may learn by the experience of others how to deal with their own families. If neighbours are willing to give advice to parents when they notice anything amiss in their children, is it not honourable in them to act so honestly? And does it not show wisdom in parents to take it in a friendly spirit? And are not these children fortunate who have such solicitous helpers among their friends, and such considerate listeners at home.

This consultation may be between the neighbour and the teacher. In this the teacher must act very warily, for he has to consider what credit he may give to the informer, how far the scholar is capable of amendment, and how the parents will look at the matter. When the parent is dealing with his own child, either from his own knowledge or from accepted report, his judgment is life or death, without appeal, but when the teacher takes this office on him many objections may be made. ‘Why did you believe? Why did he meddle? Why did you act in this way?’ But if such consultation be wisely handled by all concerned, it will be a great advantage to the child to be made to feel that, wherever he is and whatever he does, if anyone sees him, his parent or his master, or both together, will also see him through the eyes of others.

As for consultation between parents and teachers, I have already said much on this head, but it is such an important matter that I can never say too much about it, because their friendly and faithful co-operation brings about perpetual obedience in the child, scorn of evil, and desire to do well. Nothing hinders this so much as credulity and partiality in the parents, when they are unable to withstand their children’s tears and pleading against some deserved punishment. Though the parents may at the time gain their point, they will find in the end that they cannot have their own will as they would like. Such consultation is of special value when the child is leaving school to proceed onward to further learning, and when there is a question of changing masters owing to some fancied grievance. In the former case, the parent by seeking the teacher’s advice can be surer of his ground. In the latter case, it may prevent loss to the child through misunderstanding. You are offended with the master, but have you conferred with him, and explained to him openly the cause of your dissatisfaction? Have you made quite sure that the fault is not in your son, or in yourself? If the master be wise, and if he hath been advisedly chosen, though he should chance to have erred, he will know how to make amends; if he be not wise, then the consultation will help to show him up, and make it certain how much trust can be put in him. I must needs say once for all that there is no public or private means that makes so much for the good upbringing of children as this conference between parents and teachers.

The last kind of consultation that I recommend is that among the members of the teaching profession, which has a good influence on education generally. Can any single person, or even a few, however skilful they may be, see the truth as clearly as a number can, in common consultation? Even in matters not concerned with learning such conference is found profitable, and where it is practised among teachers for the common good, it may have the advantage of giving forth a unanimous opinion to the public. In places where there are a number of schools within a small compass, this kind of conference can be easily secured and is very desirable.

Systematic Direction.

The next condition of good upbringing is the best offspring of wise conferences, namely, certainty of direction, indicating what to do and what to learn, how to do and how to learn, when and where to do that which refines the behaviour, and to learn that which advanceth knowledge. For children, being themselves ignorant, must have system to direct them, and trainers must not devise something new every day, but should at once make definitely known what they will require from the children, and what the children may look for at their hands. This systematic regularity must be laid down and maintained in schools for learning, in the home for behaviour, and in churches for religion, because these three places are the chief resorts that children have.

In schooling it assureth the parents as to what is promised there, and how far it is likely to be performed, by informing them of the method and orders that are set down; it directeth the children as by a well-trodden path, how to come to where their journey lieth; it relieveth the master’s mind by putting his meaning and wishes into writing, and giving the results of experience in a form that can be followed as by habit without constant renewal.

As for regularity at home, I have already urged it, in wishing that parents would act so in the home that there may be conformity between their management and that of the school. By this means neither would schools have cause to complain of infection from private corruption, nor would they easily send any misdemeanour home, since the child would be sure to be sharply checked by its parents for any ill-doing. There should be the utmost regularity for children in the home, deciding for them when to rise and when to go to bed, when and how to say their morning and evening prayers, when and how to greet their parents night and morning, on leaving and on entering the house, at meat and on other occasions. Obedience to the prince and to the laws is securely grounded when private houses are so well ordered; there is little need for preaching when private training is so carefully carried out.

Regularity and order are equally needful for children when they attend the churches on holidays and festivals. All the young ones of the parish should be placed in a particular part of the church, where they can be properly supervised, none being suffered to range through the streets on any pretence, and all being in the eye of the parents and parishioners. They must further be attentive to the divine service and learn betimes to reverence the rule they will afterwards have to live by. Regularity brings present pleasure and much advantage later on, and he that is acquainted with discipline in his youth will think himself in exile if he find it not in old age. Whoever perceives and deplores the present variety in schooling, the disorder in families, and the dissoluteness in the church, will think I have not said amiss.