Not a formal debate, but a free conference; for which we seem to have
leisure enough; and the subject is, besides, of real importance. I
may presume to answer for our friends here, that they will not be
displeased to assist at it.
I am aware, as you said, that the practice may be sometimes
inconvenient, as it is commonly managed, on the side of _morals_; and
I would not be thought to have benefited so little by yours, and the
instructions of my other masters, as not to lay the greatest stress on
that consideration.
But, after all, these inconveniences may be pretty well avoided, by
the choice of an honest and able governor. Such an one it will not be
impossible to find, if the persons concerned be in earnest to look
out for him: I do not say in _Cells_, for a Pedant without manners;
and still less, you will say, in _Camps_, for a mannered man, without
principles or letters; but, in the world at large, for some learned and
well-accomplished person, who, yet, may not disdain to be engaged in
this noblest office of conducting a young gentleman’s education.
Under such a Governor, as this, the danger, to which a young man’s
morals may be exposed by early travel, will be tolerably guarded
against; and to make amends for the hazard he runs in this respect, I
see, on the other hand, so many reasons for breeding young men in this
way, so many benefits arising from it at all times, and such peculiar
inducements with regard to the present state of our own country, that,
I think, we shall hardly be of two minds, when you have attended to
them.