IT is of the utmost importance to individuals and to society that
attention should be watchfully bestowed upon children, both with respect
to their health and their morals. Their future welfare in life depends
upon this, and the important charge falls greatly upon the mother. Her
first lesson—their talent being only imitation—should be that of
obedience, mildly enforced; for, reason being the faculty of comparing
ideas already presented to the mind, it cannot exist in a child, to whom
few or no ideas have been presented. Then follow lessons of truth,
sincerity, industry, honesty. It ought to be impressed upon their minds
that, though they are young, yet the longest life is only like a dream;
and, short as it is, it is rendered shorter by all the time lost in
wickedness, contention, and strife. They ought to be taught that all
they can do, while they sojourn in this world, is to live honourably,
and to take every care that the soul shall return to the Being who gave
it as pure, unpolluted, and spotless as possible; and that there can be
no happiness in this life, unless they hold converse with God.
With respect to the health of children, I fear the present management is
not right. The mistaken indulgence of parents, in pampering and spoiling
the appetites of children, lays the foundation of a permanent train of
diseases, which an endless supply of medicines and nostrums will never
restore to its pristine vigour. Skilful medical aid may, indeed, be of
use, but nothing is so sure as a recurrence to a plain diet, temperance,
and exercise. The next obstacle to remedy, I fear, will not be easily
removed; for it is built upon the prejudices of mothers themselves,
dictated by notions of fashion and gentility which have taken a deep
root. When folly has given the fashion, she is a persevering dame, and
“folly ever dotes upon her darling.” Instead of impressing upon the
minds of girls the importance of knowing household affairs, and other
useful knowledge, and cultivating cheerfulness and affability along with
the courtesies of life, they must undergo a training to befit them for
appearing in frivolous company. To insure this, the mother, or some
boarding school mistress, insists that these delicate young creatures be
tightened up in a shape-destroying dress, and sit and move in graceful
stiffness. They must not spring about or make use of their limbs, lest
it might be called _romping_, and might give them so vulgar, so robust,
and so red-cheeked a look that they would not appear _like ladies_. The
consequence of this is, that they become like hot-house plants;—the air
must not blow upon them;—and, in this state, they must attend routs and
balls, and midnight assemblies, which send numbers of them to an
untimely grave.[36] If they survive these trials, still they leave
behind a want of health and vigour, which hangs upon them through life,
and they become the nerveless outcasts of nature. They are then unfit to
become the mothers of Englishmen; they twine out a life of _ennui_, and
their generation dies out. I have all my life been grieved to find this
description too often realized. It is paying too dear for female
accomplishments. It is surely desirable that a change should take place,
by which fashionable follies may be narrowed in their boundaries, and a
better line drawn out; prescribed by propriety, affability, modesty, and
good sense, on which the courtesies of life, and the invaluable
embellishments of civilisation, and everything graceful and charming in
society, is founded. I wish the ladies of the British Isles may set the
example, and take the lead in this, so that ignorant rudeness and
vulgarity may be banished from the face of the earth.
Footnote 36:
If these assemblies must be kept up—by the gentry who can afford
it—they ought to be held in the day time, that those who attend them
may get their natural rest at night.
If I could influence the fair sex, there is one thing to which I would
draw their attention; and that is Horticulture; and, connected with
this, I would recommend them, as far as convenient, to become Florists,
as this delightful and healthy employment,—which has been long enough in
the rude hands of men—would entice them into the open air, stimulate
them to exertion, and draw them away from their sedentary mode of life,
mewed up in close rooms, where they are confined like nuns. This would
contribute greatly to their amusement, and exhilarate their spirits.
Every sensible man should encourage the fair sex to follow this pursuit.
What would this world be without their help, to alleviate its burdens?
It would appear a barren waste. It would no longer be a wide-spread
garden of Eden, nor an earthly paradise within the reach of our
enjoyments. May the fruits and flowers of it, reared and presented by
their fair hands, ever operate as a charm in ensuring the attentions and
unabating regard of all men! And of all good men it will. In thus
dictating to them, no embarrassment can follow; and, if they ever know
of the liberty I thus have taken, it will probably be when all
embarrassments are, with me, at an end. And I can only further leave
behind me a wish that health may eternally blush their cheeks, and
virtue their minds.
Next in consideration to the ladies,—who they must in courtesy
follow,—are the freeholders of this favoured land. Such of these as, by
their attainments, arrive at the degree of gentlemen, are, or ought to
be, the pride and glory of every civilised country in the world. Placed
in opulence and independence, they are, and must be looked up to as, the
patrons of every virtue in the people, who, in their station of life,
may need such help to encourage them. May gentlemen never lose sight of
this important duty, and ever be able to stem the torrent of gambling
and dissipation; so that their ancient mansions may remain in their
names for ever, as pledges of their worth, and as ornaments to the
country. Without their countenance, arts and sciences, and artisans,
would languish, industry would be paralyzed, and barbarism again rear
its benumbed hands and stupid head. It is to be hoped that the business
of their wine vaults, their horses, and their dogs, may cease to be the
main business of their lives, and only be looked to as matters of
amusement wherewith to unbend their minds. And, as no man can, while he
is in possession of his faculties, rest in happiness unless he is
exercising them, and some hobby-horse must engage his attention, it
therefore becomes a question for their consideration in what way they
can best employ themselves. I would earnestly recommend that gentlemen
should endeavour to improve their lands, and lay the foundation of
fertilising them: and instead of spending—perhaps squandering—their
money in follies abroad, as far as possible, spend it at home. The late
good and wise first Lord Ravensworth used to say, there was nothing
grateful but the earth. “You cannot,” said he, “do too much for it; it
will continue to pay tenfold the pains and labour bestowed upon it.”
Estates so managed would then exhibit the appearance of clean-weeded
nurseries. As an act of justice due to the industrious farmer, he ought,
on entering upon his lease, to have his farm valued, and, when his lease
is out, valued again; and, whatever improvements he may have made, ought
to be paid for on his leaving. I am well aware that these remarks may
not be relished by those whose pride, dictated by the wish to domineer,
will not give in to this fair proposal, for fear of the independent
spirit it might rear; but it must be allowed that the landlord could
come to no loss by it, and that the community would be greatly benefited
by the adoption of such a plan. Those gentlemen who have moor lands,
however exposed and bleak they may be, may yet do something to make them
more productive, by enclosing them with dry stone dykes, beset and bound
with ivy, and intersected with whin hedges;[37] and this shelter would
form a bield for sheep and cattle, and besides would produce grass both
in quantity and quality such as never grew there before.
Footnote 37:
The very clippings of which (as noticed before) would be healthful
fodder for both sheep and cattle.
The chief offices which gentlemen and freeholders are called upon to
fulfil are, member of Parliament, magistrate, and juryman. The first is
the most important; but, indeed, in that as well as the others, the
requisite ingredients are honesty and intelligence. If we look at the
wretched tools which boroughmongers obtrude upon the nation, we may
anxiously look to the importance of electing gentlemen who will
unceasingly and boldly oppose such men ever being allowed to sit as
representatives. But these have already gone far on the road towards
paralysing the British constitution, and establishing on its ruins an
oligarchy, which is the worst and most odious of all governments.
In the troublesome and gratuitous office of magistrate, great sagacity
and penetration are requisite to enable the holders, in their political
capacity, to discriminate between stretching too far the, perhaps,
ill-defined, and often arbitrary laws, beyond the due bounds prescribed
by justice and mercy. They ought to detest being made the tools of
despotic acts of corruption, and being like Turkish Bashaws spread over
the provinces. In their civil capacities, matters come more nearly home
to them; and in this they have much need of cool deliberation, as well
as extreme vigilence, for without these there would be no such thing as
living in peace while such numbers of the dregs of the people remain in
ignorance and depravity. These latter do not know the meaning of either
religion or morality, and it is only the strong arm of the law that can
keep people of this description in order. Their evidence ought always to
be suspected. Oaths have little weight: they are so used to them. One of
our poets says,—
“Of all the nauseous complicated crimes
“Which both infest and stigmatise the times,
“There’s none which can with impious oaths compare,
“Where vice and folly have an equal share.”
But, bad as these reprobate oaths are, there are others which I think
are still worse; and these are the numerous oaths used, and indeed
imposed, on so many and on such improper occasions, where Omnipotence is
impiously appealed to in all the little dirty transactions between man
and man. It would be well to remember that an honest man’s word is as
good as his oath,—and so is a rogue’s too. Surely some remedy might be
fallen upon to check these swearing vices; especially perjury, bearing
false witness, as well as when a man is proved to have broken his word
and his honour.
There is another vice, of an odious complexion, advancing with rapid
strides to enormity, which cries aloud to be checked. Bad men, with
hardened effrontery, only laugh at their breaking down every barrier to
modesty and virtue, and thus disrobing innocence, and rendering deformed
that which ought to be the brightest feature of civilisation. The crime
to which I allude needs only to be examined to convince any one of its
cruelty to the fair sex, and its extensively demoralising influence on
society. Let any man ask himself how he would feel were his daughter or
his sister to be betrayed. This question ought to be fairly canvassed.
Although it will be allowed that men, devoid of honour and modesty, who
have let loose their unbridled, bad passions, will not be easily stopped
in their career, yet, notwithstanding, this evil may be, by the strong
arm of the law, greatly banished from the land, and innate modesty
planted in its stead.
All men and women in health, and of good character, ought to be
countenanced in marrying; and it is for them to consider whether they
can properly rear and educate a family; and, should there be an
over-abundant population, then colonisation might be resorted to at the
public expense; and this globe will be found large enough to hold
additional millions upon millions of people. There are few contracts
between human beings which should be more delicate than that of
marriage. It is an engagement of the utmost importance to individuals
and to society, and which of all others ought to be the most unbiased;
for it cannot be attended with honour, nor blessed with happiness, if it
has not its origin in mutual affection. The rules to be observed in thus
selecting and fixing the choice are few, simple, and easily understood.
Both males and females, if of unsound constitution, ought to forbear
matrimony. It is the duty of every man to endeavour to get a healthy
woman for the sake of his children, and an amiable one for his own
domestic comfort. The fair sex should observe the like rules. If a woman
marries a man who has broken down his constitution by his own
dissipation, or has imbibed a tainted one from his parents, she must not
be surprised at becoming a nurse to him and his nerveless, puny,
offspring. One cannot help wondering at the uncommon pains a gentleman
will take in buying a horse, to see that the animal is perfectly sound,
and without blemish, and that he should not take the same pains in
choosing a wife, which is of infinitely more importance to him. He,
perhaps to repair his shattered fortune, will marry any woman if she has
plenty of money. She may, indeed, be the innocent heir to the
full-charged hereditary diseases of a pair of voluptuous citizens, just
as that may happen to be. No gentleman need to look far from his home,
to be enabled to meet with an helpmate, possessing every requisite to
make him happy; but, if he cannot meet with such a one, or cannot please
himself in his own neighbourhood, he had better travel in search of one
from Land’s End to John o’ Groat’s House, than not get a proper partner
as the mother of his children.
I have often thought that the children of gentlemen—boys
particularly—are too soon put to school under improper restraints, and
harassed with education before their minds are fit for it. Were they
sent to the edge of some moor, to scamper about amongst whins and
heather, under the care of some good old man—some mentor—who would teach
them a little every day, without embarrassing them—they would there, in
this kind of preparatory school, lay in a foundation of health, as well
as education. If they were thus allowed to run wild by the sides of
burns—to fish, to wade, and to splash in—they would soon find their
minds intently employed in sports and pleasures of their own choosing.
It would be found that youth so brought up, besides thus working out any
little hereditary ailments, would never forget the charms of the
country, which would impart to them a flow of spirits through life such
as very few, or none, brought up in a town ever know, and, besides this,
lay in a strong frame work on which to build a nervous constitution,
befitting the habitation of an energetic mind and a great soul. Let any
one look at the contrast between men thus brought up, and the generality
of early-matured Lilliputian plants, and he will soon see, with very few
exceptions, the difference, both in body and mind, between them.
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