That, Sir, is my meaning; and, though expressed in more words than
may be necessary, it is surely not coloured by any rhetorical
exaggerations. But you must allow me to proceed in my own way, and
enforce the general argument, I have delivered, by applying it to the
particular exigencies and necessities of our _English_ youth.
You, who have been abroad in the world, and have so just a knowledge
of other states and countries, tell me, if there can be any thing more
ridiculous than the idiot PREJUDICES of our home-bred gentlemen; which
shew themselves, whenever their own dear Island comes, in any respect,
to be the topic of conversation. What wondrous conceits of their own
prowess, wisdom, nay of their manners and politeness! With what disdain
is a foreigner mentioned by them, and with what apparent signs of
aversion is his very person treated! They scarcely give you leave to
suppose that any virtuous quality can thrive out of their own air, or
that good sense can be expressed in any foreign language. Nay, their
foolish prepossession extends to their very soil and climate. Such
warm patriots are they, such furious lovers of their country, that they
will have it to be the theatre of all convenience, delight, and beauty.
“To hear their discourse among themselves, one would imagine that
the finest lands near the _Euphrates_, the Babylonian or Persian
_Paradises_, the rich plains of _Egypt_, the Græcian _Tempe_, the
Roman _Campania_, _Lombardy_, _Provence_, the Spanish _Andalusia_, or
the most delicious tracts in the Eastern or Western _Indies_, were
contemptible countries in respect of what they dote upon under the name
of _Old England_[40].”
Now, if it were only for the sake of truth and decency, if it were but
to avoid the ridicule to which these palpable absurdities and childish
fancies expose them, one cannot but wish that our countrymen would open
their eyes, and extend their prospect beyond their own foggy air, and
dirty acres.
But this is the least inconvenience of their home breeding. How many
low HABITS and sordid practices grow upon our youth of fortune,
and even of quality, from the influence of their family, or at best
provincial, education!
They retain so much of their _Saxon_ or _Norman_ character, that their
noblest passion is that of the Chace; unless a horse-race may, haply,
contend with it. Their ideas are all taken from the stable or kennel;
and they have hardly words for any other sort of conversation.
In conjunction with this habit, or in direct consequence of it, they
plunge themselves into the brutalities of the bottle and table. Having
little use of the faculty of thinking or discoursing on any reasonable
subject, they care not how soon they disable themselves for either. To
this end, their surloins are of sovereign effect; and if any spark of
the _divine particle_ be still unsubdued, they quench it forthwith in
the strongest wines, or, which suits their taste and design best, in
their own country liquor.
This sottish debauch leads to others. My young master will be denied no
animal gratification. And thus low intrigues and vulgar amours follow
of course, in which the sum of his refined pleasures is, at length,
completed.
The rest of his life runs on in this drowzy tenour; unless perhaps
you except those intervals, which can hardly be called _lucid_, when
his half-closed understanding seems stunned, rather than awakened, by
party-rage, election bustle, and the noise of faction.
Admirable patriots these! and usefuller citizens by far, than if they
had acquired some relish of temperance, decency, and reason, in foreign
courts, and the more improved societies of _Europe_.
But suppose our young gentleman to have escaped this sordid taste,
and by better luck than ordinary to have finished his home education
without much injury to his morals. Nay, suppose him to be inured, in
good time, to better discipline, and to have had the advantage of
what is called amongst us, by a violent figure of speech, _a liberal
education_.
To put the case at the best, suppose him to have been well whipped
through one of our public schools, and to come full fraught, at length,
with _Latin_ and _Greek_, from his college. You see him, now, on the
verge of the world, and just ready to step into it. But, good heavens,
with what PRINCIPLES and MANNERS? His spirit broken by the servile
awe of pedants, and his body unfashioned by the genteeler exercises!
Timid at the same time, and rude; illiberal and ungraceful! An absurd
compound of abject sentiments, and bigoted notions, on the one hand;
and of clownish, coarse, ungainly demeanor, on the other! In a word,
both in mind and person, the furthest in the world from any thing that
is handsome, gentlemanlike, or of use and acceptation in good company!
Bring but one of these grown boys into a circle of well-bred people,
such as his rank and fortune entitle him, and in a manner oblige him,
to live with: and see how forbidding his air, how embarrassed all his
looks and motions! His awkward attempts at civility would provoke
laughter, if, again, his rustic painful bashfulness did not excite
one’s pity. What wonder if the young man, under these circumstances,
is glad to shrink away, as soon as possible, from so constraining a
situation; and to seek the low society of his inferiors, at least of
such as himself among his equals, where he can be at ease, and give a
loose to his unformed and disorderly behaviour!
But now, on the other hand, let a young gentleman, who has been trained
abroad; who has been accustomed to the sight and conversation of men;
who has learnt his exercises, has some use of the languages, and has
read his HORACE or HOMER in good company; let such an one, at his
return, make his appearance in the best societies; and see with what
ease and address he sustains his part in them! how liberal his air and
manner! how managed and decorous his delivery of himself! In short,
how welcome to every body, and how prepared to acquit himself in the
ordinary commerce of the world, and in conversation!
I should think, if there were no other advantage of early travel,
beside this of _manners_, it were well worth setting against all the
other inconveniences, whatever they be, of this sort of Education.