nature in the multitude of its gifts, and that it should proceed
in teaching as she does in developing. For as she is unfriendly
wherever she is forced, so she is the best guide that anyone can
have, wherever she shows herself favourable. Wherefore, if nature
makes a child most fit to excel in many aptitudes, provided these
are furthered by early training, is not that education much to
be blamed that fails to do its part, allowing the child to be
deprived by negligence of the excellence that nature intended for
it? Again, seeing that there are no natural gifts that cannot be
helped forward by training, is not that manner of study to be most
highly approved which takes most pains where nature is most lavish?
The hand, the ear, the eye, are the chief means of receiving and
handing on our learning. And does not this course of study instruct
the hand how to write, to draw, to play; the eye to read by
letters, to distinguish form by lines, to judge by means of both;
the ear to call for the sound of voice and instrument for its own
pleasure and cultivation? And, in general, whatever gift nature has
bestowed upon the body, to be brought out or improved by training,
for any profitable use in life, does not this elementary course
find it out and make the most of it? As for the capacities of the
mind, whether they concern virtuous living or skill in learning,
whatever be the art, science, or profession to which they belong,
do they not all evidently depend upon reading and writing as their
natural foundations? The study of language must be the basis of
grammar, rhetoric, logic, and their derivatives, among which may
be counted all the parts of philosophy, both moral and natural,
as well as the three professions of divinity, law, and medicine,
using as they do in all their branches the instrument of speech.
If mathematics be in question, or any kindred subjects that have
a bearing on mechanical science, though their secondary use is
to whet the mental powers, yet they must rest on a study of the
properties of number, figure, motion, and sound. And as for our
pleasure in the beauties of art, that is obtained by the provision
of drawing for the eye and music for the ear. So that, in my
opinion, the fathers and founders of this elementary course (which
I am only attempting to reintroduce, though with as much goodwill
as so good a thing deserves) have shown great foresight in laying
such sure foundations as to secure that all natural capacities
shall not only be carefully fostered at their first sprouting,
but brought to the fullest perfection when they are ripe for the
harvest. When I use the term _nature_ I mean that power which God
has implanted in his creatures, both to preserve the race and to
fulfil the end of their being. The continuance of their kind is
the proof of their being, but the fulfilment of their end is the
fruit of their being. This latter is the point to which education
has a special eye (though it does not despise the other), so that
the young fry may be brought up to prove good in the end, and serve
their country well in whatever position they may be placed. For
the performance of this end I take it that this elementary course
is most sufficient, being the best means of perfecting all those
powers with which nature endows our race, by using those studies
which art and reflection appoint, and those methods which nature
herself suggests. For the end of education and training is to help
nature to her perfection in the complete development of all the
various powers.
This is what I mean by following nature, not counterfeiting her
in her own proper work by foolish imitation, or perverse attempt
to produce her effects, like an Apelles in portraiture or an
Archimedes in the laws of motion, but after considering and
marking with good judgment what are the natural tendencies and
inclinations, to frame a scheme of education in consonance with
these, and bring to perfection by art all those powers which
nature bestows in frank abundance.
For the physical life of man, in order to maintain and develop both
the individual and the species, nature has provided organs that
receive, prepare and distribute nourishment for the body, and has,
besides, given us for self-preservation the power of perceiving all
sensible things by means of feeling, hearing, seeing, smelling, and
tasting. These qualities of the outward world, being apprehended
by the understanding and examined by the judgment, are handed
over to the memory, and afterwards prove our chief--nay, our
only--means of obtaining further knowledge. Moreover, we have also
a power of movement, either under the influence of emotion or by
the enticement of desire, either for the direct purposes of life,
as in the action of the pulse and in breathing, or for outward
action, such as walking, running, or leaping. To serve the end
both of sense-perception and of motion, nature has planted in the
body a brain, the prince of all our organs, which by spreading its
channels through every part of our frame produces all the effects
through which sense passes into motion.
Further, our soul has in it a desire to obtain what it holds to
be good, and to avoid what it thinks evil. This desire is stirred
either by quiet allurement or by violent incitement, and when once
it is inflamed it strives to compass its end. To satisfy this
desire nature has given us a heart to kindle heat, and as the sense
is moved by the qualities of the object, and motion is effected by
means of sinews, so appetite, being stirred by the object of desire
or repulsion, is supplied with the means of satisfying itself.
Last of all, our soul has in it an imperial prerogative of
understanding beyond sense, of judging by reason, of directing
action for duty towards God and our fellowmen, for conquest in
affection and attainment in knowledge, and for such other things as
minister to the varied uses of our mortal life, and prove its title
to continue beyond the sphere of this roaming pilgrimage. To serve
this honourable purpose of understanding and reasoning, nature,
though she has no place in this earthly body of ours worthy to
receive such great and stately guests with their whole retinue, yet
does what she can, and, herself acting as harbinger, assigns them
for lodging her principal chamber, the very closet of the brain,
where she bestows every one of reason’s understanding friends,
according to their various ranks and special dignities. All those
capacities in their first natural condition concern only the
existence of an uncultivated man; but when they are fashioned to
their best by good education, they form the life of a perfect and
excellent man. For to exist merely, to feed, to multiply, to use
the senses, to desire, to have natural and unimproved reason--what
great thing is it, though it is something more than brute beasts
have, if the other divine qualities that build upon these are not
diligently followed? These higher powers not only rise out of
the lower at the first, but honour them in the end, just as the
best fruit honours its first blossom, or as the most skilful work
graces the first ground on which it is wrought. Besides that they
prove themselves to be the most excellent ends which nature meant
from the first, though she herself made but a weak show, however
pliable for man’s industry to work on for his own advantage. He who
does not live at all cannot live well; he who does not feed at all
cannot feed moderately; he who does not reproduce cannot exercise
continence; he who has no sense cannot use it soberly; he who does
not desire cannot desire considerately; he who uses no reason
cannot use it advisedly. But he who exercises all these functions
has in them all the capacities that nature can afford him to use
them all well, and he will so use them if judgment rule as much in
having them well as necessity in having them at all. For reason, as
it is our difference in comparison with beasts, is our excellence
in comparison with men, if we use it aright.
Those powers of reasoning and understanding in man, therefore,
being handled in a workmanlike fashion and applied to their best
uses by such devices and means as are thought fittest, direct the
natural appetites so as to secure the health of the parts appointed
for them, and of the whole body, which is compounded of those
parts. They develop the senses and their organs to their best
perfection and longest endurance. They restrain desire to the rule
of reason and the advice of foresight. They enrich the mind and
the soul itself by laying up in the treasury of remembrance all
arts and imaginations, all knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, by
which either God is to be honoured or the world is to be honestly
and faithfully served; and this heavenly benefit is begun by
education, and confirmed and perfected by continuous exercise,
which crowns the whole work.
Education of Girls.
In naming the persons who were to receive the benefit of education
I did not exclude young maidens, and, therefore, seeing I made them
one branch of my division, I must now say something more about
them. Some may think that the matter might well enough have been
passed over in silence, as not belonging to my purpose, seeing
that my professional concern is with the education of boys. But
seeing that I begin as low as the first elementary training, in
which young maidens ordinarily share, how could I seem to take no
notice of them? And to prove that they ought to receive education I
find four special reasons, any one of which--therefore surely all
together--may persuade their greatest adversary, much more then
myself, who am for them tooth and nail. The first is the custom of
the country, which allows them to learn. The second is the duty we
owe to them, charging us in conscience not to leave them deficient.
The third is their own aptness to learn, which God would never have
bestowed on them to remain idle or to be used to small purpose. The
fourth is the excellent results shown in them when they have had
the advantage of good upbringing.
I do not advocate sending young maidens to public Grammar Schools,
or to the Universities, as this has never been the custom in this
country. I would allow them learning within certain limits, having
regard to the difference in their vocation, and in the ends which
they should seek in study. We see young maidens are taught to read
and write, and can learn to do well in both; we hear them both
sing and play passing well; we know that they learn the best and
finest of our learned languages to the admiration of all men. As
to the living modern languages of highest reputation in our time,
if any one is inclined to deny that in these they can compare
with the best of our sex, they will claim no other tests than to
talk with such a one in whichever of these tongues he may choose.
These things our country doth stand to; these accomplishments
their parents procure for them according to their means and
opportunities, in so far as their daughters’ aptitude doth
offer hope of their gaining an advantage through them, by being
preferred in marriage or some other career. Nay, do we not see in
our country some of that sex so excellently well trained, and so
rarely qualified in regard both to the tongues themselves and to
the subject-matter contained in them, that they may be placed along
with, or even above, the most vaunted paragons of Greece or Rome,
or the German and French gentlewomen so much praised by recent
writers, or the Italian ladies who dare even to write themselves,
and deserve fame for so doing?
And what be young maidens in relation to our sex? Do we not,
according to nature, choose from among them those who are to be our
nearest and most necessary friends, the mothers of our children?
Are they not the very creatures that were made for our comfort,
the only remedy for our solitude, our closest companions in weal
or woe, sharers in all our fortunes until death? And can we in
conscience do otherwise than give careful thought to the welfare of
those that are linked to us in so many ways? Is it a small thing
to have our children’s mothers well strengthened in mind as in
body? And is there any better means of strengthening their minds
than to teach them that knowledge of God and religion, of civil and
domestic duties, which we ourselves gain by education, and ought
not to deny to them--that education which is to be found in books,
and can be so well acquired in youth?
If Nature has given to young maidens abilities to prove excellent
in their kind, and yet thereby in no way to fail in their most
laudable duties in marriage, but rather to beautify themselves
with admirable ornaments, are we not to be charged with extreme
unnaturalness if we do not guide by discipline what is given to
them by Nature?
The excellent effects in those women who have been well trained
show clearly that they deserve the best training. What better
example can be found to assure the world than our most dear
sovereign lady and princess, who is so familiarly acquainted with
the nine Muses that they strive which may love her best for being
the most learned, and for whose excellent knowledge we who taste of
the fruit have most cause to rejoice?
Aim of Education for Girls.
But now having granted them the benefit and society of our
education, we must determine the end which this training is to
serve, so that it may be better applied. Our training is without
restriction either as regards subject-matter or method, because our
employment is so general; their functions are limited, and so must
their education be also. If a young maiden is to be brought up with
a view to marriage, obedience to authority and similar qualities
must form the best kind of training; if from necessity she has to
learn how to earn her own living, some technical training must
prepare her for a definite calling; if she is to adorn some high
position she must acquire suitable accomplishments; if she is
destined for government, which may be offered to her by men, and
is not denied her by God, the greatness of the position calls for
general excellence, and a variety of gifts. Wherefore, having these
different ends always in view, we may appoint them different kinds
of training in accordance with circumstances.
But some churlish carper will say: “What should women do with
learning?” Such a one will never pick out the best, but be always
ready to blame the worst. If all men always made a good use of
their learning we might have something to allege against women,
but seeing that misuse is common to both sexes why should we blame
them, when we are not free from the same infirmity ourselves? Some
women may make a bad use of their writing, others of their reading;
some may turn all that they learn to bad account. And I pray you
what do we? I do not excuse ill, but I bar those from accusing who
are as bad themselves. As we share both virtues and vices with
women, let us exchange forbearance, and, hoping for the best, give
them free opportunity.
When their Education should begin.
This is my opinion as to which ought to be educated and when they
should begin. The same liberty, in respect of circumstances, being
allowed to parents in regard to their daughters as has been granted
to them with their sons, the same consideration being had for
their fitness of mind and body, and the same care being taken for
suitable physical exercise to further their health and strength, I
consider the same time of beginning proper for both--a time not to
be wholly determined by years, but rather by their development as
shown by their ability to use their intelligence without tiring,
and to work without wearying their bodies. For though girls seem
generally to have a quicker ripening of intelligence than boys, in
spite of appearances this is not the case. Through natural weakness
they cannot contain long what they possess, and so give it out
very soon; yet there are prating boys just as there are prattling
wenches. Besides, their brains are not so much laden as those of
boys, either as regards amount or variety, and therefore like empty
casks they make the greater noise. In the same way those men who
seem to be very quickwitted by some sudden pretty answer or some
sharp repartee, are not always most burdened with learning, but
merely offer the best out of a small store, taking after their
mothers. Though they must of course possess this sharpness of wit
since it manifests itself, yet it might dwell within them a great
while without manifesting itself, if study kept them quiet, or they
were preoccupied with great deeds. It is small affairs, urging to
speedy expression, that beget that kind of readiness. Boys have it
always but often hide it because they can afford to wait; girls
have it always and always show it, because they are in a greater
hurry. And seeing it is to be found in both, it deserves care
in both, so that they should neither be pushed on too much nor
allowed to be idle too long. Maidens are naturally weaker in body,
therefore more attention must be paid to them in this regard than
is necessary for boys. They are to be the principal pillars in the
upholding of households, and so they are likely to prove if their
training be wise. They will be the dearest comfort a man can have
if they incline to good, the greatest curse, if they tread awry.
Therefore they are to be warily tended, as they bear a jewel of
such worth in a vessel of such weakness.
All should have Elementary Education.
The rare excellences in some women cannot be taken as a precedent
for all to follow, as they only show us the special success that
a few parents have attained in their daughters’ upbringing. These
shining examples, however, though they cannot be used to form
general precepts, are at least proofs that women can learn if they
will, and may learn what they please, if they lend their minds to
it. To learn to read is very common where it is convenient, and
writing is not refused, where opportunity serves. Reading, even if
it were of no other use, is very needful for religion, to enable
them to know what they ought to perform, if they have none whom
they can listen to, or if their memories are not steadfast, to
refresh them. Here I may not omit many great pleasures which those
women that have time and skill to read, without hindering their
housewifery, do continually receive by reading comforting and wise
discourses, penned either in the form of history or directions to
live by. As for writing, though it may be abused, it is often very
convenient, especially in matters of business.
Music is very desirable for maidens where it is to be had, though
chiefly for the satisfaction of the parents when the daughters are
young, as is generally shown when the young wenches become young
wives, and in learning to be mothers, lightly forget their music,
thus proving that they studied it more to please their parents than
themselves. But if having been once learned, it can be kept up, as
is quite possible with proper management, it is a pity to let it
go, as it was acquired only with great pains and at considerable
cost. Learning to sing and play from the notes is easy enough, if
it be attended to from the first, and this can be kept up too,
though it suffers from discontinuance. Seeing it is but little that
girls can learn, the time being so short, because they are always
in haste to get husbands, it is expedient that what they do should
be done perfectly, so that with the loss of their penny they do not
lose their pennyworth also.
As for skill in needlework and housewifery, it is a great
recommendation in a woman to be able to govern and direct her
household, to look to her home and family, to provide and take care
of necessaries, although the good-man pay, to know the resources of
her kitchen in regard to all over whom she has charge, in sickness
and in health. But I meddle not with this as I am only dealing with
things that are incident to learning. I have now spoken of all the
subjects that should universally be taught to girls.
Higher Studies for Some.
The question as to how far any maiden may proceed in learning
beyond the subjects already spoken of requires more consideration
and more careful handling as it is a matter of some moment
concerning those in high position. And yet there are some of low
degree that seek to resemble those above them, and are satisfied
even with an appearance of imitation, but in so doing they are
passing the bounds of what is beseeming to their birth. It is mere
folly when a parent of humble station traineth up his daughter in
these high accomplishments, of which I shall presently speak, if
she marries in her own lowly rank. For in such a case these gifts
will seem so out of place that she will not gain the respect that
is paid to one who has been wisely brought up, but will rather be
accused of vain presumption. Each rank has a certain preparation
becoming to it, which is best secured when there is no attempt to
overstretch one’s powers. If some unusual capacity attain success
beyond expectation, it is generally a marked exception, and whoever
shoots at the same mark, in the hope of hitting, may sooner miss,
for there are many chances of missing to one of hitting, and
wonders that are seen only once are no examples to imitate. Every
maid may not hope to speed as she would wish, because one hath sped
better than she could have wished.
When the question is _how much_ a woman ought to learn, the answer
may be, “as much as shall be needful,” and if this is doubtful
also, the reply may be, either as much as befits what her parents
hope to obtain for her, if their position be humble, or as much
as is in keeping with the prospects naturally belonging to their
rank, if that rank be high. If the parents be of good standing, and
the daughters have special aptitudes, these may be successfully
cultivated, so that the young maidens are very soon commended to
right honourable matches in which their accomplishments will be
seemly and serviceable, benefitting perhaps the commonwealth as
well as their own families. If the parents be of humble rank,
and the maidens in their education show from the very first some
special gifts that offer good promise, even with natural progress,
there is ground for hope that their unusual qualities may bring
them to some great match. Doubtless this hope may fail, for great
personages have not always the good judgment, nor young maidens the
good fortune, that would lead to such a result, yet in any case
the maidens would remain the gainers, for they at least have their
gifts to comfort their mediocre station, and those great personages
lose from the lack of judgment to set forth their nobility.
What Higher Studies are Suitable.
Carrying the education further may consist either in perfecting
the four studies already mentioned, reading well, writing neatly,
singing sweetly, and playing finely, to such an unusual degree,
that though the things are but ordinary, special excellence in them
may bring more than ordinary admiration, or else in acquiring skill
in languages in addition to the above, so that the abundance of
gifts may cause yet more wonder.
I fear women would have little turn for geometry or the sister
sciences, nor would I make them mathematicians, except in so far as
they study music, nor lawyers to plead at the bar, nor physicians,
though skill in herbs has been much commended in women, nor
would I have them profess divinity, to preach in pulpits, though
they must practice it as virtuous livers. Philosophy would help
them in general discourse, if they had leisure to study it, but
the knowledge of some tongues, either as the vehicle of deeper
learning, or for their immediate uses, may well be wished for them,
and all those powers also that belong to the furniture of speech.
If I should allow them the pencil to draw, as well as the pen to
write, and thereby entitle them to all my elementary studies, I
might have good reasons to give. For young maidens are ready enough
to take to it, and it would help to beautify their needlework.
And is not a young gentlewoman, think you, thoroughly well equipped
who can read distinctly, write neatly and swiftly, sing sweetly,
and play and draw well, understand and speak the learned languages,
as well as the modern tongues approved by her time and country,
and who has some knowledge of logic and rhetoric, besides the
information acquired in her study of foreign languages? If in
addition to all this she be an honest woman and a good housewife,
would she not be worth wishing for and worth enshrining? And is it
likely that her children will be one whit the worse brought up?
Who should be their Teachers.
The only other question in regard to young maidens is where, and
under whom, they should learn, and this depends on how long their
studies can extend, which is generally till they are about thirteen
or fourteen years old.
Those who are able to continue longer have their time and place
suitably appointed, according to the circumstances of their
parents. As for their teachers, their own sex were fittest in some
respects, but ours frame them best, and with good regard to some
circumstances, will bring them up excellently well, especially if
the parents co-operate by exercising a wise control over them. The
greater-born ladies and gentlemen, as they are to enjoy the benefit
of this education most, so they have the best means of prosecuting
it, being able to secure the best teachers, and not being limited
in time. And so I take my leave of young maidens and gentlewomen,
to whom I wish as well as I have said well of them.
The Education of Young Gentlemen.
Under my last heading I set forth at large how young maidens were
to be advanced in learning according to their rank, which methought
was very incident to my purpose, because they are counterbranches
to us as mortal and reasonable creatures, and also because they
are always our mates, and may sometimes, according to law and
birth, be our mistresses. Now, considering that they are always
closely connected with us, and sometimes exceed us in dignity of
position, as they share with us all qualities, and all honours
even up to the sceptre, why should they not also share in our
training and education, so that they may perform well the part
which they have to play, whether it be in a position of equality
with us, or sovereignity above us? Here now ensueth another
question of great importance in regard to the kind of people who
are to be dealt with, the question of a class whose position is
always in the superlative, and of whom great things are expected,
though sometimes by their own fault they forfeit their chances,
and hand them over to others whom nature ennobles through their
inborn virtues--I mean young gentlemen of all ranks up to the crown
itself. It is the custom among those of good birth to prefer to
have their sons educated privately at home rather than at school.
This is reasonable enough for maidens because of their sex, but
young gentlemen should be educated publicly, that they may have the
benefit of mixing with others, as has been the custom in all the
best ordered commonwealths, and has been recommended by all the
most learned writers, even in the case of princes.
Private and Public Education.