NO people in the universe expend larger sums upon the education of their
children than people of Fashion. It is a maxim with them to commence the
great business of instruction in the very earliest period of life; and if
the system of education corresponded with the pains bestowed upon it, and
the price at which it is purchased, no persons would do more honour to
society than the subjects of the Fashionable World. As it is, they are
not a little ornamental to a nation. They are not, it is true, either
the columns or the base of the building; they neither support nor
strengthen it: but they supply the place of reliefs, and hangings, and
other superadded decorations.
Religion is allowed a respectable place among the studies of the nursery.
All those useful tables of instruction are assiduously employed, which
teach, who was the _first_, the _wisest_, the _meekest_, and the
_strongest_ man; and the nursling is carefully conducted, by a
catechetical process, into the theory and practice of a Christian. As,
however, the child advances to boyish or girlish years, this religious
discipline is pretty generally relaxed, in order to allow sufficient
scope for the cultivation of those modish pursuits, which mark the man
and the woman of Fashion.
And here I cannot help remarking, how anxious the greater part of
Fashionable parents are, to guard the minds of their children against the
_permanent_ influence of that religion, which they yet have caused them
to be taught. The fact is, that they would have them acquainted with the
technical language, and expert in the liturgical formalities of
Christianity; for these acquirements can neither disparage their
character, nor impede their pleasures: but a serious impression of its
truths upon their hearts, might disaffect them to the follies and vices
which they are destined to practise; and therefore is the thing, of all
others, that is most to be dreaded. The parents are, to say the truth,
not a little hampered by the engagements under which they have bound the
child, on the one part; and the character which they wish him to sustain,
on the other. To leave him in ignorance of a covenant in which he has
been involuntarily included, would be a fraud upon his conscience; and
yet, to have him renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, would be
the utter ruin of his Fashionable reputation. What other course, then,
can parents thus circumstanced pursue, than that of inculcating these
lessons before they can be understood, and removing their impression
before they can be practised?
It is, I presume, upon the principle of precaution already mentioned,
that our Fashionable young men are not always intrusted to the care of
persons distinguished for the practice of piety. It is not impossible,
indeed, that, either from the conversation, the connexions, or the
example of the preceptor, the pupil may contract certain habits, which it
was not the precise object of his education to produce. But then the
evil is not so great as fastidious moralists would insinuate. For, as
the youth is to figure in the circles of Fashion, he will only have
learnt, a little before the time, those practices which are to form a
part of his manly character: and though it might, perhaps, be as well, if
he did not learn to swear and rake quite so soon; yet it is some
consolation, that he has escaped those methodistical impressions, which
would have prevented him from swearing and raking as long as he lived.
It may also be considered as some confirmation of the reasoning above
employed, that parents introduce their children as early as possible to
the amusements of the theatre. Now, though swearing, and raking, and
gaming, when carried to excess, are blamed even by persons of Fashion
themselves; yet it is notorious, that a reasonable proportion of each is
indispensably requisite to a popular character in the circles of
refinement. Habits of this sort must not be precipitately taken up.
There must be a schooling for the man of pleasure, as well as for the man
of letters: and certainly no school exists, in which the elements of
modish vice can be studied with greater promise of proficiency, than the
public theatres. When it is considered, at what pains the managers of
the stage are, to import the seducing dramas of Germany, as well as to
get up the loose productions of the English Muse; when it is further
considered, how studious the actors and actresses are to do justice, and
even more than justice, to the luscious scenes of the piece; to give
effect to the equivoques, by an arch emphasis; and to the oaths, by a
dauntless intonation:—when to all this is added, how many painted
strumpets are stuck about the theatre, in the boxes, the galleries, and
the avenues; and how many challenges to prostitution are thrown out in
every direction: it will, I think, be difficult to imagine places better
adapted, than the theatres at this moment are, to teach the theory and
practice of Fashionable iniquity.
What has been observed on the subject of education, though said
principally with reference to the male branches of Fashionable families,
will yet, with a few changes, be found applicable to the youth of the
other sex. The principal points upon which their scheme of education is
brought to bear, are those of dissipation and display. A brilliant
finger on the piano, wanton flexions in the dance, a rage for operas,
plays, and parties, and the faculty of undergoing the fatiguing
evolutions of a Fashionable life, without compunction of conscience,
sense of weariness, or indications of disgust, are qualifications which
she who has acquired, will be considered as wanting little of a perfect
education.
The same assiduity is discovered on the part of the parents, to train
their girls for the sphere of polite life, as has been already observed
with respect to the boys; and the methods that are pursued to accomplish
this end, are very nearly the same. The blush of virgin-modesty (it is
naturally foreseen) would be extremely inconvenient, not to say
absolutely indecorous, in a woman of Fashion; and therefore it is wisely
resolved, that such steps shall be taken upon the girl’s growing into
life, as may most effectually destroy it. The theatre seems principally
to be resorted to for this purpose; and it must be manifest, from what
has been already advanced, that no expedient could have been better
chosen. As intrigue is the life of the drama, and this cannot be carried
on, without expressions, attitudes, and communications between the sexes,
of a very particular nature, there is every reason for regarding the
stage as a sovereign remedy for the infirmity of _blushing_.
There are other things to be said on behalf of the theatre, as a school
of polite morality.
It has already appeared, that the system of Ethics which prevails among
people of Fashion, differs materially from the received system of
unfashionable Christians. Now, I know not any means by which a stranger,
anxious to ascertain, wherein that difference consists, could better
satisfy his enquiries, than by visiting the theatres. The doctrine of
the stage, therefore, exhibiting (as nearly as possible) the standard
morality of polite society, nothing could be better imagined, than to
give the embryo woman of Fashion the earliest opportunity of learning to
so much advantage, those lessons which she is afterwards to practise
through life. What she has imbibed in the nursery, and what she hears in
the church, would inspire her with a dread—perhaps a dislike—of many
things upon which she must learn hereafter to look with familiar
indifference, if not with absolute complacency. She might thus (if some
remedy were not provided) be led to take up with certain melancholy
principles, which would either shut her out from the society of her
friends, or make her miserable among them. But the stage corrects all
this; and more than counterbalances the impressions of virtue, by
stratagems of the happiest contrivance.
It is worthy of attention, how much ingenuity is displayed in bringing
about that moral temperament, which is necessary for the meridian of
Fashion. The rake, who is debauching innocence, squandering away
property, and extending the influence of licentiousness to the utmost of
his power, would (if fairly represented) excite spontaneous and universal
abhorrence. But this result would be extremely inconvenient; since
raking, seduction, and prodigality, make half the business, and almost
all the reputation, of men of Fashion. What, then, must be done?—Some
qualities of acknowledged excellence must be associated with these
vicious propensities, in order to prevent them from occasioning unmingled
disgust. We may, I presume, refer it to the same policy, that in dramas
of the greatest popularity, the worthless libertine is represented as
having at the bottom some of those properties which reflect most honour
upon human nature; while—as if to throw the balance still more in favour
of vice—the man of professed virtue is delineated as being in the main a
sneaking and hypocritical villain. Lessons such as these are not likely
to be lost upon the ingenuous feelings of a young girl. For, besides the
fascinations of an elegant address and an artful manner, the whole
conduct of the plot is an insidious appeal to the simplicity of her
heart. She is taught to believe, by these representations, that
profligacy is the exuberance of a generous nature, and decorum the veil
of a bad heart: so that having learnt, in the outset of her career, to
associate frankness with vice, and duplicity with virtue, she will not be
likely to separate these combinations during the remainder of her life.
To enter further into the minute details of a Fashionable education,
would only be to travel over ground which has been often and ingeniously
explored by writers of the greatest eminence. Enough has been said to
show, that the system of education adopted by this people, like every
other branch of their economy, is adapted to qualify the parties for that
polite intercourse with each other, which seems to constitute the very
end of their being. And if it be considered, of what nature that
intercourse is, it will occasion no surprise, that the education which
prepares for it should be expressly adapted to confound the distinctions
of virtue and vice; and to inculcate, with that view,—duplicity in
religion, and prevarication in morals.