useful. It is the Opinion of several ingenious Writers, that the first
Appearance of a Stranger makes the strongest and most lasting Impression
on us; that, as they shew to more or less Advantage at first Sight, so
do we think more or less favourably of them ever after. Now, tho’ I
do not think this is universally true, since Experience shews us that
some who strike us at first never give us any Pleasure in their Company
afterwards, and others who have nothing very pleasing in the Beginning
of our Acquaintance, improve upon us at every Visit, and insensibly gain
our Esteem; yet it is certain, that our Deportment should always be such
as may dispose People to think favourably of us, and never such as can
justly offend. But here I must observe, that young People are very apt to
prostitute this Disposition, by using it only occasionally; whereas, to
make it a Virtue, it must be exercised universally, and become a settled
Habit; in short, it must flow from the Heart. A young Gentleman is to pay
a Visit to a great Man, to a rich Aunt, or to some Person of Distinction,
of whom perhaps he has Views or Expectations; what Pains are taken to
make a graceful Appearance, how exact is his Deportment, how nice is his
Behaviour, and how pleasing his Conversation! The Visit paid, the Mask
is thrown off, and he is a very Bear to every one else; nay perhaps even
to his Parents, to whom he owes all that he enjoys. So too a young Lady
who is to make her Appearance at an Assembly; no Player studies more to
get their Part before they come on the Stage, than she to attract her
Beholders; but then, like them too, when her Part is over, she often
falls below herself. But have Actions like these any Merit in them? can
it be a Virtue never to be civil but where we expect to gain by it? ought
we not to give every thing it’s proper Name, and call such Behaviour
Dissimulation and Hypocrisy? most certainly. To obviate then this Error
in our Children, and prove the real Use of Education, let Parents be
very careful to teach them an universal good Behavior; not partial,
narrow, or confined, but such as will shew itself at all Times, on all
Occasions, and to all Degrees of People: and if, as has been observed,
the first Impressions generally make for or against us according as we
behave, Youth must be taught to consider themselves as continually seen
by somebody or other for the first time; and therefore they must always
demean themselves in such manner as to deserve Esteem, if they ever hope
to gain it.
The other Point of Education is to make our Children useful; therefore
nothing that can contribute to it should be omitted. A young Man, besides
the first Education bestowed on him, besides the Pains taken by his
Parents to engage him in such a Station as gives him the fairest Prospect
of Happiness to himself, must be instructed to employ his Talents to
the Benefit of others; and in all things, as far as is consistent with
Prudence, Justice, and Self-preservation, promote the Happiness and
Advantage of every one within his Reach. Here let me add, that while our
Laws give the Men superior Power, a Father should be very careful to fix
in his Son a tender regard to the opposite Sex; not indeed to become
their Slaves, or degenerate into Effeminacy; not to be the Dupe of those
who study to allure; but to have a just Sense of their Merit, their
Innocence, and their Virtue: and thence resolve never to despise, insult,
or oppress them, nor ever to impose a Hardship on them too great to bear.
A Girl, on the other hand, is to be taught, that a Degree of Subjection
is allotted her; but that it must never be base, nor ever need be mean.
She must know too, that the Fruits of her Education are to appear in her
Actions; to this End, besides her Knowledge of Books, the Exercise of her
Needle, her Pen, and her Figures, she is to understand the Management of
a House, be acquainted with the various Seasons of Provisions, the Price
of Markets, Skill in Carving, Demeanour at Table, and, in a Word, the
whole Oeconomy of a Family. Lastly, she must know that her Province is to
please, and that every Deviation from it, is thwarting Nature; but that
the chearful Exercise of those Obligations her Station requires, will
best secure Happiness to herself, and the Esteem of all who behold her.
I flatter myself that what I have here said, will furnish my Readers
of this Class with some Help to guide them thro’ the Difficulties
that naturally attend their Duty as Parents. And if to this they add
the Exercise of their own Judgment, by varying the Rules as they see
necessary, their Children will undoubtedly receive much Improvement; and
reflect great Honour on themselves, who thus aim at the general Good, not
only of their own Offspring, but of all Posterity.
I have here enlarged on the Steps necessary to be taken for educating
three Classes of People, and now proceed to treat of the fourth; which
comprehends a very large Part of the Kingdom, but _London_ particularly;
_viz._ all the inferior Trades, and many others, that, according to the
Custom of associating together, we may consider as forming one Division.
Men, very valuable in their Way, and of boundless Use to Society: tho’ by
the Wisdom of Providence born rather to Labour than to Idleness; to be
obedient to the Laws, than to be the Dispensers of them.
I am well aware that Difficulties will occur to me on this Head, and
thereby sometimes break the Order of my Design; but, as I have elsewhere
observed, when Exceptions from general Rules are reasonable, it is
perfectly right to adhere to them. It would be Affectation in me to call
myself such a Stranger to the World, as not to know the Influence of
Money: Mankind is apt to contract a Degree of Esteem for all who possess
it; and the Possessor seldom fails to set a sufficient Value on himself
for it. Thus it often happens that Men, whose Business is but mean,
grow wealthy, have perhaps an only Child, and think they have a Right
to educate it as they please; for my own Part I do not mean expressly
to oppose it, because it may be nipping a promising Fruit in the Bud;
but Parents of this Class stand in need of more Knowledge to conduct
themselves herein than commonly speaking they are possess’d of.
Nothing is more frequent than for Men in different Stations to ruin
themselves by rashly aspiring; and he who has Reputation and Credit
in one Sphere, is perhaps undone if he moves beyond it. But while we
see that Money is apt to make Men even of good Understanding and good
Education giddy, no wonder that those of obscure Birth, no Education, and
a Life of ordinary Employment, spent mostly in ordinary Company, value
themselves for their Possessions far beyond Desert. To this is owing that
vain Strut, that supercilious Air, and Contempt of others, so frequent in
People of this Class; and hence too arise those Errors they daily commit,
by an ostentatious Education of their Children; by vainly aspiring to
equal their Betters, and often to surpass them, at least in Appearance. I
had occasion, some Years ago, to make a Visit to a young Lady of Fashion
and Fortune at one of our Boarding-Schools near Town, where the best
dress’d Girl in the whole House was a Poulterer’s Daughter. Can there be
any thing more absurd than this? yet is there any thing more common? It
is a general Observation, that ordinary People dress their Children finer
than People of Fashion; and why? only because they will shew the World
they are able to do it, and therefore will not be outdone. Parents are
not aware how destructive this false Pride, this vain mistaken Fondness
is to their Children: and the first Effect it has on them is, to make
them ashamed of their Parents, those very People who thus mislead them.
Can any thing be more preposterous and unnatural? yet is it undeniably
true.
There is an unhappy Propensity among Mankind in general of being ashamed
of their poor and mean Relations, even among the Good; it is a Spark of
Pride very hard to be extinguished, yet it may and ought to be done.
And considering that scarcely a Family in the Kingdom is without them,
more or less, it is Matter of Surprise that such Pains should be taken
to stifle and conceal them: especially too if we reflect how much real
Honour it does ourselves to cherish, to countenance, and to espouse them.
Still it is true, that there is this Propensity, this Weakness in Men,
either from their Nature, or their Education. Shall we then, instead of
keeping under this Pride in ourselves, lead our Children into it too?
shall we deck them out so far above themselves only to despise us? and
to make them falsely happy, make ourselves truly wretched? nothing can
be a greater Folly, and nothing requires more the Parents Care to avoid.
I remember I once called to see a Friend who was an Apothecary; a young
Fellow, my Friend’s Apprentice, was at Work behind the Counter, and out
peep’d a laced Waistcoat. (I must observe it was in those Days when a
laced Waistcoat stood for something, for it has now, I think, lost all
it’s Significance.) As the Appearance was unusual, I enquired who that
young Gentleman was; and, to my great Surprise, was informed he was
the Son of a Coachman; and the Lace he wore was taken off his Father’s
Livery. Thus what was before no better than the Badge of Dependence, is
now turned into an Instrument of Contempt and Ridicule. In how many of
these things do the Weakness and Folly of Parents appear? would such a
Boy own his Father on the Coach-box? or would he not rather, with an
audacious Cock of his Hat, pass contemptuously by him? nothing better
could be expected. And yet People who take these Steps wonder their
Children are not good; wonder they are proud, vain, and untoward, when
they themselves have made them so.
Another Effect attending this misplaced Indulgence, this false Education,
besides the making them ashamed of their Parents and Relations, is, the
Influence it has on the Children’s future Lives: the Parents, it is true,
are often made wretched, but the Children are not happy. Every thing
raised above itself is in a precarious tottering State; the Building,
whose Foundation is weak, is every Day liable to fall; and the Man who
pretends to what he cannot maintain or support, is in perpetual Danger of
Ruin. Self-sufficiency and Money may make his Outside passable; but if
he is all Meanness, all Ignorance within, he can never procure a Grain
of Esteem, nor ever be solidly happy. Children may in time discover
their Parents Mistakes and their own Misfortune, but will then perhaps
have no Remedy to apply. Happy had it been for them had their Education
suited their Condition in Life; they would then have laboured with honest
Chearfulness; and by keeping within their proper Sphere, have had their
Labours crown’d with Success.
My Readers of this Class will, I am afraid, be apt to mistake me, and
think I design to keep them in a low dependent State; such an one as
they call being unhappy; far from it: I would not have undertaken this
Treatise at all, had I not designed the real, the universal Good of
Mankind. Without Vanity I can say it, no one has a more disinterested, a
more general Love of human Nature than myself; thousands have superior
Abilities, but few, perhaps none, have superior good Wishes for the
Happiness of Society; and should this very Performance prove a Trifle,
the Fault may be in my Head, but it is not in my Heart: my Intention is
good, if my Power is weak. Let this then serve as an Apology to all my
Readers, but let those of this Class in particular be persuaded, that
my Design is to augment the Happiness of their Children, not to lessen
it. But then, they must resolve to seek Happiness where it can be found;
if they wander into a Maze of Difficulties, and get into a Sphere they
are utter Strangers to, they will most probably miss of it; but if they
confine themselves within their own proper Orb, they need not fear to
find it. Still there is Reason to apprehend, that Men of every Rank, and
even among the lowest, will value themselves not for what they are, but
for what they have; and while People mistake Head for Brains, and Money
for Merit, the best Advice will often be useless.
But great as this Folly is, there is a much greater reigning. Money, as I
have already observed, is extremely apt to intoxicate Mankind; and it’s
Influence is but too visible both in high and low Life: but there are
thousands of this Class of People who pride themselves in educating their
Children learnedly and expensively, without the least Pretensions upon
Earth. If a Gentleman upon the Decay can get his Son educated suitable
to his Birth, Regard to his Family, and Regard to his Education, may
obtain him a genteel and profitable Employment: so too, if a Man in
an inferior Station is convinced he can purchase his Son a Place or a
Commission suitable to his superior Education, there is certainly room
to justify him, tho’ we blame his Vanity; but that People without the
least Expectations, that are conscious they cannot give their Children
a Shilling, who have not the Honour of a Family to support, nor a
Reputation to maintain, should run these strange Lengths, is amazing! The
Truth is, Pride and Ignorance are their Guides; they scorn to be outdone
by their Neighbours, tho’ all the while they really don’t know what it is
they are doing.
It is to be presumed that Children while Children, and while educating,
are in general Strangers to what may be their future Fortune on the
part of their Parents: now if they are taught to think themselves equal
to their Betters, taught to expect mighty things, and at length find
nothing, it is, I think, a grievous Calamity on one side, and gross
Injustice on the other: and yet is this evidently a daily Error.
The same things that yield us great Good, are often productive of great
Evil. Food, designed by the Laws of Nature to preserve Life and Health,
is often made the Instrument to destroy it. Education, designed to lead
us to Happiness, by enlarging and improving our Understandings in some
certain Way, is often made the Instrument of our Destruction. Hence
appears the Necessity of a temperate and a judicious Use of both; and
hence too we see, that the Education suitable for one, is very unfit for
another. But I will now point out what Education appears to me to be
generally proper for People of this Class; and where solid Reasons make
particular Exceptions necessary, it is my Advice that Reason take place
of general Rules.
I will suppose then that my Readers design with me the real Good of
their Children; and neither mean to neglect them, nor to hazard their
Ruin by overdoing things. To this End Boys are to be taught Reading,
Writing, Arithmetic, and Drawing; to which may be added, a Knowledge
of Maps. This Plan, tho’ comprized in a few Words, contains all they
need, nay all they ought to learn. It is usual in the common Businesses
to put Boys Apprentice at about fourteen Years old; now supposing they
begin to learn at seven, they have Work enough cut out for seven Years
at least; which if well attended to, and their Time be well employed, is
capable of turning to great account. I mean not to give offence to any
one, but as the Province I am engaged in obliges me to speak my Thoughts,
I may offend without Intention: and honest Truth, in a Matter of this
Importance, is not to be disguised. My Advice then is, that Boys of this
Class never once attempt to learn _Latin_. What do they want with it? or
what use can they make of it? will it enable a Man to make better Shoes?
will it assist a Taylor in cutting out a Coat? or will it give a Barber
a keener Edge to his Razor? Parents, when they send a Boy to School,
are often guided by the Master what he shall learn; he, naturally fond
of advancing his Scholar, puts him into _Latin_; and thinks him shabby
without it. But is it not possible that this Gentleman may be a Man of
real Merit, a good Grammarian, nay a compleat classic Scholar, yet a very
bad Judge of Life? most certainly. The Boy is thrust headlong into things
he does not want, and neither Parents nor Master consider the End: for
tho’ it is certain that Parents cannot always tell what their Children
will be, yet those of this Class are pretty sure they want not deep
Learning.
Of all the Mistakes committed in Education, none is equal to that of our
being thrust into an Employment for which we are unqualified; especially
too if it be one of a serious important Nature; now no People on Earth
are so liable to this as the Class we are treating of; for as they are
apt to take a Remove beyond themselves for profound Knowledge, they
plunge their Children into a Labyrinth of Difficulties, by engaging them
in a Profession or Science far beyond their Power to reach.
I have already urged, that, in the Case before us, a learned Education is
needless and improper; but this is saying too little of it, and treating
it too mildly: we may go farther, and shew that it is even hurtful, by
being an Impediment to more useful Knowledge: and farther still, that
it is not always what it is taken for. A Boy in common Life has perhaps
about seven Years Schooling; the greatest Part whereof is employed in
learning _Latin_: his _English_ is notoriously neglected; and Writing
and Arithmetic he gains but imperfectly. Now I beg leave to ask, whether
these three last are not more useful to a Boy of this Stamp than _Latin_?
and whether it is not a Misfortune to spend his Time in gaining what he
has no use for, and omitting what he wants? But it is an Error in me
to call it gaining, when in Reality it is losing: for after a Boy has
been puzling his poor Brains, and been tortured with _Latin_ for several
Years, it is ten to one that, comparatively speaking, he knows nothing:
that is, nothing radical, and to the Bottom; nothing, in short, but what
one Year’s Apprenticeship will entirely efface. As a Proof that this is
no Exaggeration, losing Learning is not only the Fate of Boys in common
Life, who seldom get more than a Smattering, but it is confessed by every
Gentleman, by the deepest Scholars, that a long Disuse of a Language,
or almost any Branch of Learning, will in great measure wear it out
of our Memories: or at least take off that Facility which constitutes
Perfection. A Relation of mine was sent to _London_ some Years ago to
be educated fit for Business; a Friend had the Care of him; who, after
sending him to learn Reading, Writing, and Accompts for some Time,
resolved to compleat him by putting him for a Year to _Merchant-Taylors_
School to learn _Latin_. He did so; and that finished, he was put
Apprentice to a Cabinet-maker. But what availed his _Latin_? just
nothing. In three Months time he saw’d and planed it all away; he was not
a Pin the better for it; but he lost a Year of precious Time, that might
have been very usefully employed in improving what he had before learn’d,
and in applying himself to Drawing: a thing absolutely necessary for the
very Business he was put to, and which, to my own Knowledge, he has often
lamented the Want of. Now this is not a single Instance, an accidental
Mistake, but a general Error; hundreds and thousands of which might be
every day produced: the Consequences whereof are always more or less
wrong, and sometimes very fatal.
I have observed that useful things are neglected, to run in pursuit
of what to them is useless; that is, they leave a certain Good for a
precarious one. But we may reason still farther on this Head with great
Utility. Mankind is by Nature aspiring and ambitious; and where Wisdom
and Prudence accompany our Steps herein, they are highly laudable.
But if, instead of these, Ignorance and Vanity are our Guides, we are
pretty sure of going wrong. A Man of mean Extraction, and illiterate,
takes these mistaken Steps already pointed out, in bringing up his Son;
whence a false Pride is stamped on both, and is sure to increase with
the Boy’s Learning. The Father’s Care is to keep his Boy from disgracing
his Education. “_Jack_, (says he) I have bestowed Learning on you, to
make you a Man; look forward, and I don’t fear but you will make your
Fortune.” And the Son at the same time takes care to think himself a
better Man than his Father. But let us conduct him on; he is now a
Gentleman; because he has, or fancies he has, Learning. He must dress
fine, and keep Company with his Betters; this leads him to Expences
he cannot afford; no matter, he is a Gentleman, and must appear like
one. His Father, after rumaging his Brains for a genteel Employment, at
length puts his Son to an Attorney. But that’s a dull Life, he likes the
Stage better; and after having seen Plays by the hundred, he concludes
himself equal to any thing, and turns Player: where perhaps his highest
Character is to speak the Prologue in _Hamlet_’s mock Play, or to be the
rueful Apothecary in _Romeo and Juliet_. It is too well known what kind
of Lives these Gentlemen lead; they are mostly riotous, extravagant,
miserable, and short. Now can it be denied that these, and such as
these, are the fatal Consequences of this false Education? surely daily
Experience convinces us it cannot. But as I labour for the public Good,
so I desire to do the strictest Justice. I will grant then that a Boy of
this Stamp, and thus trained, does all on his Part to advance himself;
that he is prudent, temperate, and virtuous; still he has neither Bottom,
Interest, nor Friends; it is an hundred, perhaps a thousand to one, if he
arrives at any thing higher than being a Hackney-Writer, an Usher to a
School, or at most the slavish Master of an insignificant one.
Permit me here a short Digression. There are no People in the World,
whom I at the same time both honour and pity, so much as Schoolmasters
and Preceptors; those particularly to whom we owe the most essential,
the most solid Part of our Education. There is something strangely
inconsistent in Mankind, or they could not see a Master incessantly
slave, and toil, and sweat to instruct others, and leave him at last
without Reward. The Man who is qualified for a Teacher, must have
laboured many Years in the Pursuit of Knowledge. If we would wish this
Man to do Justice to our Sons, we certainly should do Justice to him;
that is, we should prove, at the same time that we desire our Children
to be made wise, that we have so much Gratitude as to make him happy,
by rewarding him as he deserves. From this ungrateful Disposition, or,
from a very misplaced Frugality, it often happens that Parents do not
seek the best Teachers, but the cheapest; whence not only follow the
fatal Consequences attending a bad Education, by a seeming one passing
for real, but also that many, who are by no means qualified, undertake
the important Task. To return then to my Subject, we cannot doubt but
that some of these unqualified Teachers are the Fruits of this false
Education we have been speaking of; Men, who tho’ unequal to the Task
they are engaged in, would have been distinguished as eminent Proficients
in another Way, and been very valuable to Society; while in this, the
highest Honour they arrive at, is perhaps the holding forth with a
dictatorial Air in an Ale-house.
Many are the evil Effects this false Education produces; for thro’ the
Mistakes of Parents, the Pride of Children shews itself very early, and
daily gathers Strength: they soon look down with Scorn and Contempt on
the mean Business of their Father; and soon aspire to what they have
not the least Chance to reach. But as they have been injudiciously
taught to aspire, we cannot greatly wonder at their mistaken Conduct:
hence we see them spending their Lives not merely in Trifles, but in
Riot, Extravagancies, and Debauchery: averse to Employment, averse to
Labour; too learned to be industrious, too ignorant to be wise. But how
much happier would they be to know themselves, and keep within that
Self-knowledge! How sweet is that Bread which is earn’d with honest
Industry! How much happier is the Man that labours at his Loom, than he
who with mistaken Pride, despising it, is perhaps reduced to be dependent
on others! Could then Parents in general of this Rank, but learn Content
in their Stations, and keep their Children from soaring beyond their
Reach, they would secure much Comfort to both, besides contributing to
the Happiness of Posterity.
My Readers will remember that the Scheme of Education for Boys of this
Class, is Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Drawing, and a Knowledge of Maps.
I will now shew what Advantage may be made of these, and endeavour to
prove, that this is so far from being a contemptible Education, that
when attained to Perfection, it is not only useful, but very extensively
so.