Philip de Mornay enjoins: “The best thing to be instilled into the minds
of children, is to fear God. This is the beginning, the middle, and the
end, of wisdom. Next, they ought to be induced to be kind one to
another. Great care ought to be taken to guard against speaking on
improper subjects in their presence, since lasting impressions are made
at a very early age; on the contrary, our conversation ought to be on
good and instructive topics. Imperceptibly to themselves or others, they
derive great benefit from such discourse; for it is quite certain that
children take the tinge either of good or evil, without the process
being discovered.”
True excellence is only to be arrived at by the true Education; for in
Education, as in all the rest of life, there are two ways of acting.
“The one way, when the learner looks upon his powers as his own, and
works them in a self-confident, hard spirit; which is by far the
quickest way to temporary success. The other, when the learner, looking
upon all his powers as given to him, works humbly in a tentative spirit,
distrusting self, keeping the heart open to improvement, thinking that
every body and every thing can teach him something; putting himself, in
fact, in God’s hand, as a learner, not as a judge. To such a spirit
belongs the promise that he shall be led into all truth. Directly we
imagine we know a thing, we close our stores, and shut the gates against
fresh treasures; but whilst laying up truth, still think that all is
incomplete, still humbly think, however broad and firm and deep the
foundation we have laid may be, that eternity shall not suffice for the
superstructure; in fact, still hold the vessel to be filled, and God
will ever fill it; still use that fulness in His service, and at the
right time the right thing shall come. Nothing but pride shuts out
knowledge. Who is not conscious, taking only the merest intellectual
work, how little really depends on himself, how many thoughts are direct
gifts, how much precious material _comes_ into his hands, is given—is
given—not his own; who will not admit, if nothing more, that a headache,
a qualm, may destroy his cherished hopes, so little can he rely on
self?”[80]
The late Baron Alderson, writing to his son, says: “I have sent you to
Eton that you may be taught your duties as an English young gentleman.
The first duty of such a person is to be a good and religious Christian;
the next is to be a good scholar; and the third is to be accomplished in
all manly exercises and games, such as rowing, swimming, jumping,
cricket, and the like. Most boys, I fear, begin at the wrong end, and
take the last first; and, what is still worse, never arrive at either of
the other two at all. I hope, however, better things of you; and to hear
first that you are a good, truthful, honest boy, and then that you are
one of the hardest workers in your class; and after that, I confess I
shall be by no means sorry to hear that you can show the idle boys that
an industrious one can be a good cricketer, and jump as wide a ditch, or
clear as high a hedge, as any of them.”
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Footnote 80:
Thring’s _Sermons delivered at Uppingham School_.
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