Nothing is more prejudicial to after-success in life than indulgence to
youth when at school. Sir James Mackintosh felt and acknowledged this
error. He tells us that when he left school he could only imperfectly
construe a small part of Virgil, Horace, and Sallust: he adds, “Whatever
I have done beyond, has been since added by my own irregular reading.
But no subsequent circumstance could make up for that invaluable habit
of vigorous and methodical industry which the indulgence and
irregularity of my school-life prevented me from acquiring, and of which
I have painfully felt the want in every part of my life.”
Another mistake is a profuse allowance of Pocket-money at School: we
once heard an old Westminster declare that to his unlimited supply of
money when at the college he attributed over-indulgence in luxuries
which had injured his health, and often rendered him the dupe of mean
and designing persons—full-grown parasites—mischievous as the plants of
that name, which bear down the trees they attack, and rob them of the
food intended for their own leaves and fruit.