SHEWING HOW THE VICAR DEALT WITH THE JUVENILE PART OF HIS FLOCK; AND
HOW HE WAS OF OPINION THAT THE MORE PLEASANT THE WAY IN WHICH CHILDREN
ARE TRAINED UP TO GO CAN BE MADE FOR THEM, THE LESS LIKELY THEY WILL
BE TO DEPART FROM IT.
Sweet were the sauce would please each kind of taste,
The life, likewise, were pure that never swerved;
For spiteful tongues, in cankered stomachs placed,
Deem worst of things which best, percase, deserved.
But what for that? This medicine may suffice,
To scorn the rest, and seek to please the wise.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
The first thing which Mr. Bacon had done after taking possession of
his vicarage, and obtaining such information about his parishioners as
the more considerate of them could impart, was to enquire into the
state of the children in every household. He knew that to win the
mother's good will was the surest way to win that of the family, and
to win the children was a good step toward gaining that of the mother.
In those days reading and writing were thought as little necessary for
the lower class, as the art of spelling for the class above them, or
indeed for any except the learned. Their ignorance in this respect was
sometimes found to be inconvenient, but by none, perhaps, except here
and there by a conscientious and thoughtful clergyman, was it felt to
be an evil,—an impediment in the way of that moral and religious
instruction, without which men are in danger of becoming as the beasts
that perish. Yet the common wish of advancing their children in the
world, made most parents in this station desire to obtain the
advantage of what they called book-learning for any son who was
supposed to manifest a disposition likely to profit by it. To make him
a scholar was to raise him a step above themselves.
_Qui ha les lettres, ha l'adresse
Au double d'un qui n'en ha point._[1]
Partly for this reason, and still more that industrious mothers might
be relieved from the care of looking after their children, there were
few villages in which, as in Mr. Bacon's parish, some poor woman in
the decline of life and of fortune, did not obtain day-scholars enough
to eke out her scanty means of subsistence.
[Footnote 1: BAIF.]
The village Schoolmistress, such as Shenstone describes in his
admirable poem, and such as Kirke White drew from the life, is no
longer a living character. The new system of education has taken from
this class of women the staff of their declining age, as the spinning
jennies have silenced the domestic music of the spinning wheel. Both
changes have come on unavoidably in the progress of human affairs. It
is well when any change brings with it nothing worse than some
temporary and incidental evil; but if the moral machinery can
counteract the great and growing evils of the manufacturing system, it
will be the greatest moral miracle that has ever been wrought.
Sunday schools, which make Sunday a day of toil to the teachers, and
the most irksome day of the week to the children, had not at that time
been devised as a palliative for the profligacy of large towns, and
the worsened and worsening condition of the poor. Mr. Bacon
endeavoured to make the parents perform their religious duty toward
their children, either by teaching them what they could themselves
teach, or by sending them where their own want of knowledge might be
supplied. Whether the children went to school or not, it was his wish
that they should be taught their prayers, the Creed and the
Commandments, at home. These he thought were better learnt at the
mothers' knees than from any other teacher; and he knew also how
wholesome for the mother it was that the child should receive from her
its first spiritual food, the milk of sound doctrine. In a purely
agricultural parish, there were at that time no parents in a state of
such brutal ignorance as to be unable to teach these, though they
might never have been taught to read. When the father or mother could
read, he expected that they should also teach their children the
catechism; in other cases this was left to his humble co-adjutrix the
schoolmistress.
During the summer and part of the autumn, he followed the good old
usage of catechizing the children, after the second lesson in the
evening service. His method was to ask a few questions in succession,
and only from those who he knew were able to answer them; and after
each answer he entered into a brief exposition suited to their
capacity. His manner was so benevolent, and he had made himself so
familiar in his visits, which were at once pastoral and friendly, that
no child felt alarmed at being singled out; they regarded it as a mark
of distinction, and the parents were proud of seeing them thus
distinguished. This practice was discontinued in winter; because he
knew that to keep a congregation in the cold is not the way either to
quicken or cherish devotional feeling. Once a week during Lent he
examined all the children, on a week day; the last examination was in
Easter week, after which each was sent home happy with a homely cake,
the gift of a wealthy parishioner, who by this means contributed not a
little to the good effect of the pastor's diligence.
The foundation was thus laid by teaching the rising generation their
duty towards God and towards their neighbour, and so far training them
in the way that they should go. In the course of a few years every
household, from the highest to the lowest,—(the degrees were neither
great nor many), had learnt to look upon him as their friend. There
was only one in the parish whose members were upon a parity with him
in manners, none in literary culture; but in good will, and in human
sympathy, he was upon a level with them all. Never interfering in the
concerns of any family, unless his interference was solicited, he was
consulted upon all occasions of trouble or importance. Incipient
disputes, which would otherwise have afforded grist for the lawyer's
mill, were adjusted by his mediation; and anxious parents, when they
had cause to apprehend that their children were going wrong, knew no
better course than to communicate their fears to him, and request that
he would administer some timely admonition. Whenever he was thus
called on, or had of himself perceived that reproof or warning was
required, it was given in private, or only in presence of the parents,
and always with a gentleness which none but an obdurate disposition
could resist. His influence over the younger part of his flock was the
greater because he was no enemy to any innocent sports, but on the
contrary was pleased to see them dance round the may-pole, encouraged
them to dress their doors with oaken boughs on the day of King
Charles's happy restoration, and to wear an oaken garland in the hat,
or an oak-apple on its sprig in the button hole; went to see their
bonfire on the fifth of November, and entertained the morris-dancers
when they called upon him in their Christmas rounds.
Mr. Bacon was in his parish what a moralizing old poet wished himself
to be, in these pleasing stanzas:—
I would I were an excellent divine,
That had the Bible at my fingers' ends,
That men might hear out of this mouth of mine
How God doth make his enemies his friends;
Rather than with a thundering and long prayer
Be led into presumption, or despair.
This would I be, and would none other be
But a religious servant of my God:
And know there is none other God but He,
And willingly to suffer Mercy's rod,
Joy in his grace and live but in his love,
And seek my bliss but in the world above.
And I would frame a kind of faithful prayer
For all estates within the state of grace;
That careful love might never know despair,
Nor servile fear might faithful love deface;
And this would I both day and night devise
To make my humble spirits exercise.
And I would read the rules of sacred life,
Persuade the troubled soul to patience,
The husband care, and comfort to the wife,
To child and servant due obedience,
Faith to the friend and to the neighbour peace,
That love might live, and quarrels all might cease;
Pray for the health of all that are diseased,
Confession unto all that are convicted,
And patience unto all that are displeased,
And comfort unto all that are afflicted,
And mercy unto all that have offended,
And grace to all, that all may be amended.[2]
[Footnote 2: N. B., supposed to be NICHOLAS BRETON.]