Of that, in due time. At present, you accept this as a reasonable idea
or sketch of an _English_ gentleman’s character; such as the course of
his education ought to imprint upon him: and I shall now shew you very
clearly that it is not possible to be attained in the way of _foreign
Travel_.
Consider, _first_ of all, the unavoidable WASTE OF TIME; of that time
which is so precious in every view; not only as being the most proper
for making the acquisitions, I speak of; but as being the only period
of his life, which he will be at liberty to employ in that manner.
Early youth is flexible and docile: apt to take the impressions of
virtue, and ready to admit the principles of knowledge. The faculties
of the mind are then vigorous and alert: the conception quick, and
the memory retentive. The humble drudgery of acquiring the elements
of literature and science is to young minds an easy and a flattering
employment. A submissive reverence for their teachers disposes them
to proceed without reluctance in any path that is prescribed to them;
and a springing emulation, joined to a conscious sense of gradual
improvement, gives force and constancy to their pursuits. The objects
of their application seem important; not only from the novelty of them,
and the authority of those who have the direction of their studies,
but chiefly perhaps from a confused sense of their value, much above
what they would entertain, were they able to form a true and distinct
judgment of them.
This, then, is the season for laying the foundations of knowledge and
ability of every kind; and if you let it slip, without applying it
carefully to those purposes, you will in vain lament the omission in
riper years, when the cares or amusements of life afford little leisure
for such pursuits, and less inclination.
There may have been some few examples of those, whose superior industry
in advanced age has atoned for the defects of their education. But in
general the _man_ depends intirely on the _boy_; and he is all his life
long, what the impressions, he received in his early years, have made
him[41]. If therefore any considerable part of this precious season be
_wasted_ in foreign travel, I mean if it be actually _not employed_ in
the pursuits proper to it, this circumstance must needs be considered
as an objection of great weight to that sort of education.
Your Lordship may consider, _next_, the DISSIPATION OF MIND attending
on this itinerant education; while the scene is constantly changing;
and new objects perpetually springing up before him, to solicit the
admiration of our young traveller.
One of the greatest secrets in education is, to fix the attention
of youth: a painful operation! which requires long use and a steady
unremitting discipline; the very reverse of that roving, desultory
habit, which is inseparable from the sort of life you would recommend.
The young mind is naturally impatient of constraint: it hates to
be confined for any time in the same track; and is flying out, at
every turn, from the proper subject of its meditation. Instead of
counteracting this native infirmity, you indulge and flatter it;
till, by degrees, the mind loses its tone and vigour, and is utterly
incapable of paying a due attention to any thing.
I insist the more on this consideration, because in acquiring the
elements of learning it is of great importance that the learner proceed
uniformly in the course on which he has entered. It may now and then
be the privilege of a genius, to seize the principles of knowledge at
once, and to grow wise, as we may say, by intuition. But the common
sort of minds are of another make. It is by slow steps only that they
arrive at knowledge; and, if you stop or divert their progress, their
labour is all thrown away, or yields at best a shallow, superficial,
and ill-digested learning.
But were no account to be had of _the loss of time_, or of _this
dissipated turn of mind_, which is still more pernicious, I should
nevertheless object to this travelled education, on account of the very
objects to which our traveller’s APPLICATION is directed.
Instead of those necessary and fundamental parts of knowledge, which
I require him to have laid in, his attention, so much of it as can be
spared for any thing that looks like information, is wasted on things
either frivolous or unimportant.
His _first_ business is, to make himself perfect in the forms of
breeding, which he finds in use among those he lives with, or perhaps
in their forms of dress only.
His _next_ concern is, to acquire a readiness in the languages of
_Europe_; or, to shorten his labour as much as possible, at least in
the _French_ language. The pretence is, that he may fit himself for
conversation with his foreign acquaintance; which takes up much time to
little purpose, as the use ceases, in a good degree, with his return
home: and, that he may qualify himself for perusing their best books;
which takes him off from the study of those which are still better; in
the learned languages, and I will venture to say, in his own.
If any thing _further_ employ his attention, it is perhaps a little
virtuosoship. He inquires after fine pictures, fine statues, fine
buildings. He visits the shops of artificers; gets admission to
libraries, cabinets of medals, and repositories of curiosities; and,
for some relaxation from these arduous toils, is frequent at Churches,
Theatres, and Courts of Judicature, and stares at processions,
ceremonies, and other solemn shews.
And, now, when these three points have been duly attended to, I
leave your Lordship to guess what leisure he is likely to have for
accomplishing himself in those other studies, which you allow me to
suppose are of much greater importance.
In one word, my Lord, if he acquires any knowledge, it is only, or
chiefly, of such things as he may very well do without, or, at best,
are of an inferior and subordinate consideration: while the branches of
learning, he must neglect for these, are of the most constant use and
necessity to him in the commerce of his whole life.
Till then your Lordship can find a way to reconcile these different
pursuits, I must be of opinion that the boasted way of travel is the
worst that can be contrived for the proper instruction of our young
countrymen.