_On the_ EDUCATION _of_ YOUTH _in_ AMERICA.
The Education of youth is, in all governments, an object of the first
consequence. The impressions received in early life, usually form the
characters of individuals; a union of which forms the general character
of a nation.
The mode of Education and the arts taught to youth, have, in every
nation, been adapted to its particular stage of society or local
circumstances.
In the martial ages of Greece, the principal study of its Legislators
was, to acquaint the young men with the use of arms, to inspire them
with an undaunted courage, and to form in the hearts of both sexes, an
invincible attachment to their country. Such was the effect of their
regulations for these purposes, that the very women of Sparta and
Athens, would reproach their own sons, for surviving their companions
who fell in the field of battle.
Among the warlike Scythians, every male was not only taught to use arms
for attack and defence; but was obliged to sleep in the field, to carry
heavy burthens, and to climb rocks and precipices, in order to habituate
himself to hardships, fatigue and danger.
In Persia, during the flourishing reign of the great Cyrus, the
Education of youth, according to Xenophon, formed a principal branch of
the regulations of the empire. The young men were divided into classes,
each of which had some particular duties to perform, for which they were
qualified by previous instructions and exercise.
While nations are in a barbarous state, they have few wants, and
consequently few arts. Their principal objects are, defence and
subsistence; the Education of a savage therefore extends little farther,
than to enable him to use, with dexterity, a bow and a tomahawk.
But in the progress of manners and of arts, war ceases to be the
employment of whole nations; it becomes the business of a few, who are
paid for defending their country. Artificial wants multiply the number
of occupations; and these require a great diversity in the mode of
Education. Every youth must be instructed in the business by which he is
to procure subsistence. Even the civilities of behavior, in polished
society, become a science; a bow and a curtesy are taught with as much
care and precision, as the elements of Mathematics. Education proceeds
therefore, by gradual advances, from simplicity to corruption. Its first
object, among rude nations, is safety; its next, utility; it afterwards
extends to convenience; and among the opulent part of civilized nations,
it is directed principally to show and amusement.
In despotic states, Education, like religion, is made subservient to
government. In some of the vast empires of Asia, children are always
instructed in the occupation of their parents; thus the same arts are
always continued in the same families. Such an institution cramps
genius, and limits the progress of national improvement; at the same
time it is an almost immoveable barrier against the introduction of
vice, luxury, faction and changes in government. This is one of the
principal causes, which have operated in combining numerous millions of
the human race under one form of government, and preserving national
tranquillity for incredible periods of time. The empire of China, whose
government was founded on the patriarchical discipline, has not suffered
a revolution in laws, manners or language, for many thousand years.
In the complicated systems of government which are established among the
civilized nations of Europe, Education has less influence in forming a
national character; but there is no state, in which it has not an
inseparable connection with morals, and a consequential influence upon
the peace and happiness of society.
Education is a subject which has been exhausted by the ablest writers,
both among the ancients and moderns. I am not vain enough to suppose I
can suggest any new ideas upon so trite a theme as Education in general;
but perhaps the manner of conducting the youth in America may be capable
of some improvement. Our constitutions of civil government are not yet
firmly established; our national character is not yet formed; and it is
an object of vast magnitude that systems of Education should be adopted
and pursued, which may not only diffuse a knowlege of the sciences, but
may implant, in the minds of the American youth, the principles of
virtue and of liberty; and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of
government, and with an inviolable attachment to their own country. It
now becomes every American to examin the modes of Education in Europe,
to see how far they are applicable in this country, and whether it is
not possible to make some valuable alterations, adapted to our local and
political circumstances. Let us examin the subject in two views. First,
as it respects arts and sciences. Secondly, as it is connected with
morals and government. In each of these articles, let us see what errors
may be found, and what improvements suggested, in our present practice.
The first error that I would mention, is, a too general attention to the
dead languages, with a neglect of our own.
This practice proceeds probably from the common use of the Greek and
Roman tongues, before the English was brought to perfection. There was a
long period of time, when these languages were almost the only
repositories of science in Europe. Men, who had a taste for learning,
were under a necessity of recurring to the sources, the Greek and Roman
authors. These will ever be held in the highest estimation both for
stile and sentiment; but the most valuable of them have English
translations, which, if they do not contain all the elegance,
communicate all the ideas of the originals. The English language,
perhaps, at this moment, is the repository of as much learning, as one
half the languages of Europe. In copiousness it exceeds all modern
tongues; and though inferior to the Greek and French in softness and
harmony, yet it exceeds the French in variety; it almost equals the
Greek and Roman in energy, and falls very little short of any language
in the regularity of its construction.[1]
[1] This remark is confined solely to _its construction_; in
point of orthography, our language is intolerably irregular.
In deliberating upon any plan of instruction, we should be attentive to
its future influence and probable advantages. What advantage does a
merchant, a mechanic, a farmer, derive from an acquaintance with the
Greek and Roman tongues? It is true, the etymology of words cannot be
well understood, without a knowlege of the original languages of which
ours is composed. But a very accurate knowlege of the meaning of words
and of the true construction of sentences, may be obtained by the help
of Dictionaries and good English writers; and this is all that is
necessary in the common occupations of life. But suppose there is some
advantage to be derived from an acquaintance with the dead languages,
will this compensate for the loss of five or perhaps seven years of
valuable time? Life is short, and every hour should be employed to good
purposes. If there are no studies of more consequence to boys, than
those of Latin and Greek, let these languages employ their time; for
idleness is the bane of youth. But when we have an elegant and copious
language of our own, with innumerable writers upon ethics, geography,
history, commerce and government; subjects immediately interesting to
every man; how can a parent be justified in keeping his son several
years over rules of Syntax, which he forgets when he shuts his book; or
which, if remembered, can be of little or no use in any branch of
business? This absurdity is the subject of common complaint; men see and
feel the impropriety of the usual practice; and yet no arguments that
have hitherto been used, have been sufficient to change the system; or
to place an English school on a footing with a Latin one, in point of
reputation.
It is not my wish to discountenance totally the study of the dead
languages. On the other hand I should urge a more close attention to
them, among young men who are designed for the learned professions. The
poets, the orators, the philosophers and the historians of Greece and
Rome, furnish the most excellent models of Stile, and the richest
treasures of Science. The slight attention given to a few of these
authors, in our usual course of Education, is rather calculated to make
pedants than scholars; and the time employed in gaining superficial
knowlege is really wasted.[2]
[2] In our colleges and universities, students read some of
the ancient Poets and Orators; but the Historians, which are
perhaps more valuable, are generally neglected. The student
just begins to read Latin and Greek to advantage, then quits
the study. Where is the seminary, in which the students read
Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Dionysius
Halicarnasseus, Livy, Velleius, Paterculus and Tacitus? How
superficial must be that learning, which is acquired in four
years! Severe experience has taught me the errors and defects
of what is called a liberal education. I could not read the
best Greek and Roman authors while in college, without
neglecting the established classical studies; and after I
left college, I found time only to dip into books, that every
scholar should be master of; a circumstance that often fills
me with the deepest regret. "Quis enim ignorat et eloquentiam
et cæteras artes descivisse ab ista vetere gloria, non inopia
hominum, sed desidia juventutis, et negligentia parentum, et
inscientia præcipientium, et oblivione moris antiqui?--Nec in
auctoribus cognoscendis, nec in evolvenda antiquitate, nec in
notitia vel rerum, vel hominum, vel temporum satis operæ
insumitur."--_Tacitus, de Orat. Dial. 28. 29._
"A little learning is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."
But my meaning is, that the dead languages are not necessary for men of
business, merchants, mechanics, planters, &c. nor of utility sufficient
to indemnify them for the expense of time and money which is requisite
to acquire a tolerable acquaintance with the Greek and Roman authors.
Merchants often have occasion for a knowlege of some foreign living
language, as, the French, the Italian, the Spanish, or the German; but
men, whose business is wholly domestic, have little or no use for any
language but their own; much less, for languages known only in books.
There is one very necessary use of the Latin language, which will always
prevent it from falling into neglect; which is, that it serves as a
common interpreter among the learned of all nations and ages. Epitaphs,
inscriptions on monuments and medals, treaties, &c. designed for
perpetuity, are written in Latin, which is every where understood by the
learned, and being a dead language is liable to no change.
But the high estimation in which the learned languages have been held,
has discouraged a due attention to our own. People find themselves able
without much study to write and speak the English intelligibly, and thus
have been led to think rules of no utility. This opinion has produced
various and arbitrary practices, in the use of the language, even among
men of the most information and accuracy; and this diversity has
produced another opinion, both false and injurious to the language, that
there are no rules or principles on which the pronunciation and
construction can be settled.
This neglect is so general, that there is scarcely an institution to be
found in the country, where the English tongue is taught regularly, from
its elements to its true and elegant construction, in prose and verse.
Perhaps in most schools, boys are taught the definition of the parts of
speech, and a few hard names which they do not understand, and which the
teacher seldom attempts to explain; this is called _learning grammar_.
This practice of learning questions and answers without acquiring any
ideas, has given rise to a common remark, _that grammar is a dry study_;
and so is every other study which is prosecuted without improving the
head or the heart. The study of geography is equally dry, when the
subject is not understood. But when grammar is taught by the help of
visible objects; when children perceive that differences of words arise
from differences in things, which they may learn at a very early period
of life, the study becomes entertaining, as well as improving. In
general, when a study of any kind is tiresome to a person, it is a
presumptive evidence that he does not make any proficiency in knowlege,
and this is almost always the fault of the instructor.
In a few instances perhaps the study of English is thought an object of
consequence; but here also there is a great error in the common
practice; for the study of English is preceded by several years
attention to Latin and Greek. Nay, there are men, who contend that the
best way to become acquainted with English, is to learn Latin first.
Common sense may justly smile at such an opinion; but experience proves
it to be false.
If language is to be taught mechanically, or by rote, it is a matter of
little consequence whether the rules are in English, Latin or Greek: But
if children are to acquire _ideas_, it is certainly easier to obtain
them in a language which they understand, than in a foreign tongue. The
distinctions between the principal parts of speech are founded in
nature, and are within the capacity of a school boy. These distinctions
should be explained in English, and when well understood, will
facilitate the acquisition of other languages. Without some preparation
of this kind, boys will often find a foreign language extremely
difficult, and sometimes be discouraged. We often see young persons of
both sexes, puzzling their heads with French, when they can hardly write
two sentences of good English. They plod on for some months with much
fatigue, little improvement, and less pleasure, and then relinquish the
attempt.
The principles of any science afford pleasure to the student who
comprehends them. In order to render the study of language agreeable,
the distinctions between words should be illustrated by the differences
in visible objects. Examples should be presented to the senses, which
are the inlets of all our knowlege. That _nouns are the names of things,
and that adjectives express their qualities_, are abstract definitions,
which a boy may repeat five years without comprehending the meaning. But
that _table_ is the name of an article, and _hard_ or _square_ is its
property, is a distinction obvious to the senses, and consequently
within a child's capacity.
There is one general practice in schools, which I censure with
diffidence; not because I doubt the propriety of the censure, but
because it is opposed to deep rooted prejudices: This practice is the
use of the Bible as a school book. There are two reasons why this
practice has so generally prevailed: The first is, that families in the
country are not generally supplied with any other book: The second, an
opinion that the reading of the scriptures will impress, upon the minds
of youth, the important truths of religion and morality. The first may
be easily removed; and the purpose of the last is counteracted by the
practice itself.
If people design the doctrines of the Bible as a system of religion,
ought they to appropriate the book to purposes foreign to this design?
Will not a familiarity, contracted by a careless disrespectful reading
of the sacred volume, weaken the influence of its precepts upon the
heart?
Let us attend to the effect of familiarity in other things.
The rigid Puritans, who first settled the New England States, often
chose their burying ground in the center of their settlements.
Convenience might have been a motive for the choice; but it is probable
that a stronger reason was, the influence which they supposed the
frequent burials and constant sight of the tombs would have upon the
lives of men. The choice, however, for the latter purpose, was extremely
injudicious; for it may be laid down as a general rule, that those who
live in a constant view of death, will become hardened to its terrors.
No person has less sensibility than the Surgeon, who has been accustomed
to the amputation of limbs. No person thinks less of death, than the
Soldier, who has frequently walked over the carcasses of his slain
comrades; or the Sexton, who lives among the tombs.
Objects that affect the mind strongly, whether the sensations they
excite are painful or pleasureable, always lose their effect by a
frequent repetition of their impressions.[3] Those parts of the
scripture, therefore, which are calculated to strike terror to the mind,
lose their influence by being too frequently brought into view. The same
objection will not apply to the history and morality of the Bible;
select passages of which may be read in schools to great advantage. In
some countries, the common people are not permitted to read the Bible at
all: In ours, it is as common as a newspaper, and in schools, is read
with nearly the same degree of respect. Both these practices appear to
be extremes. My wish is not to see the Bible excluded from schools, but
to see it used as a system of religion and morality.
[3] The veneration we have for a great character, ceases with
an intimate acquaintance with the man. The same principle is
observable in the body. High seasoned food, without frequent
intervals of abstinence, loses its relish. On the other hand,
objects that make slight impressions at first, acquire
strength by repetition. An elegant simplicity in a building
may not affect the mind with great pleasure at first light;
but the pleasure will always increase with repeated
examinations of the structure. Thus by habit, we become
excessively fond of food which does not relish at first
tasting; and strong attachments between the sexes often take
place from indifference, and even from aversion.
These remarks suggest another error which is often committed in our
inferior schools: I mean that of putting boys into difficult sciences,
while they are too young to exercise their reason upon abstract
subjects. For example; boys are often put to the study of mathematics,
at the age of eight or ten years; and before they can either read or
write. In order to show the impropriety of such a practice, it is
necessary to repeat what was just now observed, that our senses are the
avenues of knowlege. This fact proves that the most natural course of
Education is that which employs, first the senses or powers of the body,
or those faculties of the mind which first acquire strength; and then
proceeds to those studies which depend on the power of comparing and
combining ideas. The art of writing is mechanical and imitative; this
may therefore employ boys, as soon as their fingers have strength
sufficient to command a pen. A knowledge of letters requires the
exercise of a mental power, memory; but this is coeval almost with the
first operations of the human mind; and with respect to objects of
sense, is almost perfect even in childhood. Children may therefore be
taught reading, as soon as their organs of speech have acquired strength
sufficient to articulate the sounds of words.[4]
[4] Great caution should be observed in teaching children to
pronounce the letters of the alphabet. The labials are easily
pronounced; thus the first words a child can speak are _papa_
and _mama_. But there are some letters, particularly _l_ and
_r_, which are of difficult pronunciation, and children
should not be pressed to speak words in which they occur. The
difficulty may produce a habit of stammering.
But those sciences, a knowlege of which is acquired principally by the
reasoning faculties, should be postponed to a more advanced period of
life. In the course of an English Education, mathematics should be
perhaps the last study of youth in schools. Years of valuable time are
sometimes thrown away, in a fruitless application to sciences, the
principles of which are above the comprehension of the students.
There is no particular age, at which every boy is qualified to enter
upon mathematics to advantage. The proper time can be best determined by
the instructors, who are acquainted with the different capacities of
their pupils.
Another error, which is frequent in America, is that a master undertakes
to teach many different branches in the same school. In new settlements,
where people are poor, and live in scattered situations, the practice is
often unavoidable: But in populous towns, it must be considered as a
defective plan of Education. For suppose the teacher to be equally
master of all the branches which he attempts to teach, which seldom
happens, yet his attention must be distracted with a multiplicity of
objects, and consequently painful to himself and not useful to the
pupils. Add to this the continual interruptions which the students of
one branch suffer from those of another, which must retard the progress
of the whole school. It is a much more eligible plan to appropriate an
apartment to each branch of Education, with a teacher who makes that
branch his sole employment. The principal academies in Europe and
America are on this plan, which both reason and experience prove to be
the most useful.
With respect to literary institutions of the first rank, it appears to
me that their local situations are an object of importance. It is a
subject of controversy, whether a large city or a country village is the
most eligible situation for a college or university. But the arguments
in favor of the latter, appear to me decisive. Large cities are always
scenes of dissipation and amusement, which have a tendency to corrupt
the hearts of youth and divert their minds from their literary pursuits.
Reason teaches this doctrine, and experience has uniformly confirmed the
truth of it.
Strict discipline is essential to the prosperity of a public seminary of
science; and this is established with more facility, and supported with
more uniformity, in a small village, where there are no great objects of
curiosity to interrupt the studies of youth or to call their attention
from the orders of the society.
That the morals of young men, as well as their application to science,
depend much on retirement, will be generally acknowleged; but it will be
said also, that the company in large towns will improve their manners.
The question then is, which shall be sacrificed; the advantage of an
_uncorrupted heart_ and an _improved head_; or of polished manners. But
this question supposes that the virtues of the heart and the polish of
the gentleman are incompatible with each other; which is by no means
true. The gentleman and the scholar are often united in the same person.
But both are not formed by the same means. The improvement of the head
requires close application to books; the refinement of manners rather
attends some degree of dissipation, or at least a relaxation of the
mind. To preserve the purity of the heart, it is sometimes necessary,
and always useful, to place a youth beyond the reach of bad examples;
whereas a general knowlege of the world, of all kinds of company, is
requisite to teach a universal propriety of behavior.
But youth is the time to form both the head and the heart. The
understanding is indeed ever enlarging; but the seeds of knowlege should
be planted in the mind, while it is young and susceptible; and if the
mind is not kept untainted in _youth_, there is little probability that
the moral character of the _man_ will be unblemished. A genteel address,
on the other hand, _may_ be acquired at any time of life, and _must_ be
acquired, if ever, by mingling with good company. But were the
cultivation of the understanding and of the heart, inconsistent with
genteel manners, still no rational person could hesitate which to
prefer. The goodness of a heart is of infinitely more consequence to
society, than an elegance of manners; nor will any superficial
accomplishments repair the want of principle in the mind. It is always
better to be _vulgarly right_, than _politely wrong_.
But if the amusements, dissipation and vicious examples in populous
cities render them improper places for seats of learning; the monkish
mode of sequestering boys from other society, and confining them to the
apartments of a college, appears to me another fault. The human mind is
like a rich field, which, without constant care, will ever be covered
with a luxuriant growth of weeds. It is extremely dangerous to suffer
young men to pass the most critical period of life, when the passions
are strong, the judgement weak, and the heart susceptible and
unsuspecting, in a situation where there is not the least restraint upon
their inclinations. My own observations lead me to draw the veil of
silence over the ill effects of this practice. But it is to be wished
that youth might always be kept under the inspection of age and superior
wisdom; that literary institutions might be so situated, that the
students might live in decent families, be subject, in some measure, to
their discipline, and ever under the control of those whom they
respect.
Perhaps it may also be numbered among the errors in our systems of
Education, that, in all our universities and colleges, the students are
all restricted to the same course of study, and by being classed,
limited to the same progress. Classing is necessary, but whether
students should not be removeable from the lower to the higher classes,
as a reward for their superior industry and improvements, is submitted
to those who know the effect of emulation upon the human mind.
But young gentlemen are not all designed for the same line of business,
and why should they pursue the same studies? Why should a merchant
trouble himself with the rules of Greek and Roman syntax, or a planter
puzzle his head with conic sections? Life is too short to acquire, and
the mind of man too feeble to contain, the whole circle of sciences. The
greatest genius on earth, not even a Bacon, can be a perfect master of
_every_ branch; but any moderate genius may, by suitable application, be
perfect in any _one_ branch. By attempting therefore to teach young
gentlemen every thing, we make the most of them mere smatterers in
science. In order to qualify persons to figure in any profession, it is
necessary that they should attend closely to those branches of learning
which lead to it.
There are some arts and sciences which are necessary for every man.
Every man should be able to speak and write his native tongue with
correctness; and have some knowlege of mathematics. The rules of
arithmetic are indispensably requisite. But besides the learning which
is of common utility, lads should be directed to pursue those branches
which are connected more immediately with the business for which they
are destined.
It would be very useful for the farming part of the community, to
furnish country schools with some easy system of practical husbandry. By
repeatedly reading some book of this kind, the mind would be stored with
ideas, which might not indeed be understood in youth, but which would be
called into practice in some subsequent period of life. This would lead
the mind to the subject of agriculture, and pave the way for
improvements.
Young gentlemen, designed for the mercantile line, after having learned
to write and speak English correctly, might attend to French, Italian,
or such other living language, as they will probably want in the course
of business. These languages should be learned early in youth, while the
organs are yet pliable; otherwise the pronunciation will probably be
imperfect. These studies might be succeeded by some attention to
chronology, and a regular application to geography, mathematics,
history, the general regulations of commercial nations, principles of
advance in trade, of insurance, and to the general principles of
government.
It appears to me that such a course of Education, which might be
completed by the age of fifteen or sixteen, would have a tendency to
make better merchants than the usual practice which confines boys to
Lucian, Ovid and Tully, till they are fourteen, and then turns them into
a store, without an idea of their business, or one article of Education
necessary for them, except perhaps a knowlege of writing and figures.
Such a system of English Education is also much preferable to a
university Education, even with the usual honors; for it might be
finished so early as to leave young persons time to serve a regular
apprenticeship, without which no person should enter upon business. But
by the time a university Education is completed, young men commonly
commence _gentlemen_; their age and their pride will not suffer them to
go thro the drudgery of a compting house, and they enter upon business
without the requisite accomplishments. Indeed it appears to me that what
is now called a _liberal Education_, disqualifies a man for business.
Habits are formed in youth and by practice; and as business is, in some
measure, mechanical, every person should be exercised in his employment,
in an early period of life, that his habits may be formed by the time
his apprenticeship expires. An Education in a university interferes with
the forming of these habits; and perhaps forms opposite habits; the mind
may contract a fondness for ease, for pleasure or for books, which no
efforts can overcome. An academic Education, which should furnish the
youth with some ideas of men and things, and leave time for an
apprenticeship, before the age of twenty one years, would in my opinion,
be the most eligible for young men who are designed for activ
employments.
The method pursued in our colleges is better calculated to fit youth for
the learned professions than for business. But perhaps the period of
study, required as the condition of receiving the usual degrees, is too
short. Four years, with the most assiduous application, are a short time
to furnish the mind with the necessary knowlege of the languages and of
the several sciences. It might perhaps have been a period sufficiently
long for an infant settlement, as America was, at the time when most of
our colleges were founded. But as the country becomes populous, wealthy
and respectable, it may be worthy of consideration, whether the period
of academic life should not be extended to six or seven years.
But the principal defect in our plan of Education in America, is, the
want of good teachers in the academies and common schools. By good
teachers I mean, men of unblemished reputation, and possessed of
abilities, competent to their stations. That a man should be master of
what he undertakes to teach, is a point that will not be disputed; and
yet it is certain that abilities are often dispensed with, either thro
inattention or fear of expense.
To those who employ ignorant men to instruct their children, permit me
to suggest one important idea: That it is better for youth to have _no_
Education, than to have a bad one; for it is more difficult to eradicate
habits, than to impress new ideas. The tender shrub is easily bent to
any figure; but the tree, which has acquired its full growth, resists
all impressions.
Yet abilities are not the sole requisites. The instructors of youth
ought, of all men, to be the most prudent, accomplished, agreeable and
respectable. What avail a man's parts, if, while he is the "wisest and
brightest," he is the "meanest of mankind?" The pernicious effects of
bad example on the _minds_ of youth will probably be acknowleged; but
with a view to _improvement_, it is indispensably necessary that the
teachers should possess good breeding and agreeable manners. In order to
give full effect to instructions, it is requisite that they should
proceed from a man who is loved and respected. But a low bred clown, or
morose tyrant, can command neither love nor respect; and that pupil who
has no motive for application to books, but the fear of a rod, will not
make a scholar.
The rod is often necessary in school; especially after the children have
been accustomed to disobedience and a licentious behavior at home. All
government originates in families, and if neglected there, it will
hardly exist in society; but the want of it must be supplied by the rod
in school, the penal laws of the state, and the terrors of divine wrath
from the pulpit. The government both of families and schools should be
absolute. There should, in families, be no appeal from one parent to
another, with the prospect of pardon for offences. The one should always
vindicate, at least apparently, the conduct of the other. In schools the
master should be absolute in command; for it is utterly impossible for
any man to support order and discipline among children, who are indulged
with an appeal to their parents. A proper subordination in families
would generally supersede the necessity of severity in schools; and a
strict discipline in both is the best foundation of good order in
political society.
If parents should say, "we cannot give the instructors of our children
unlimited authority over them, for it may be abused and our children
injured;" I would answer, they must not place them under the direction
of any man, in whose temper, judgement and abilities, they do not repose
perfect confidence. The teacher should be, if such can be found, as
judicious and reasonable a man as the parent.
There can be little improvement in schools, without strict
subordination; there can be no subordination, without principles of
esteem and respect in the pupils; and the pupils cannot esteem and
respect a man who is not in himself respectable, and who is not treated
with respect by their parents. It may be laid down as an invariable
maxim, that a person is not fit to superintend the Education of
children, who has not the qualifications which will command the esteem
and respect of his pupils. This maxim is founded on a truth which every
person may have observed; that children always _love_ an _amiable_ man,
and always _esteem_ a _respectable_ one. Men and women have their
passions, which often rule their judgement and their conduct. They have
their caprices, their interests and their prejudices, which at times
incline them to treat the most meritorious characters with disrespect.
But children, artless and unsuspecting, resign their hearts to any
person whose manners are agreeable, and whose conduct is respectable.
Whenever, therefore, pupils cease to respect their teacher, he should be
instantly dismissed.
Respect for an instructor will often supply the place of a rod of
correction. The pupil's attachment will lead him to close attention to
his studies; he fears not the _rod_ so much as the _displeasure_ of his
teacher; he waits for a smile, or dreads a frown; he receives his
instructions and copies his manners. This generous principle, the fear
of offending, will prompt youth to exertions; and instead of severity on
the one hand, and of slavish fear, with reluctant obedience on the
other, mutual esteem, respect and confidence strew flowers in the road
to knowlege.
With respect to morals and civil society, the other view in which I
proposed to treat this subject, the effects of Education are so certain
and extensiv, that it behooves every parent and guardian to be
particularly attentiv to the characters of the men, whose province it is
to form the minds of youth.
From a strange inversion of the order of nature, the cause of which it
is not necessary to unfold, the most important business in civil
society, is, in many parts of America, committed to the most worthless
characters. The Education of youth, an employment of more consequence
than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the
foundation on which both law and gospel rest for success; this Education
is sunk to a level with the most menial services. In most instances we
find the higher seminaries of learning intrusted to men of good
characters, and possessed of the moral virtues and social affections.
But many of our inferior schools, which, so far as the heart is
concerned, are as important as colleges, are kept by men of no breeding,
and many of them, by men infamous for the most detestable vices.[5] Will
this be denied? will it be denied, that before the war, it was a
frequent practice for gentlemen to purchase convicts, who had been
transported for their crimes, and employ them as private tutors in their
families?
[5] How different this practice from the manner of educating
youth in Rome, during the flourishing ages of the republic!
There the attention to children commenced with their birth;
an infant was not educated in the cottage of a hireling
nurse, but in the very bosom of its mother, whose principal
praise was, that she superintended her family. Parents were
careful to choose some aged matron to take care of their
children; to form their first habits of speaking and acting;
to watch their growing passions, and direct them to their
proper objects; to guard them from all immodest sports,
preserve their minds innocent, and direct their attention to
liberal pursuits.
"--Filius--non in cella emptæ nutricis sed gremio ac sinu
matris educabatur, cujus præcipua laus, tueri domum, et
inservire liberis. Eligebatur autem aliqua major natu
propinqua, cujus probatis spectatisque moribus, omnis
cujuspiam familiæ soboles committeretur, coram qua neque
dicere fas erat quod turpe dictu, neque facere quod
inhonestum factu videretur. Ac non studia modo curasque, sed
remissiones etiam lusus que puerorum, sanctitate quadam ac
verecundia temperabat." In this manner were educated the
Gracchi, Cæsar, and other celebrated Romans. "Quæ disciplina
ac severitas eo pertinebat, ut sincera et interga et nullis
pravitatibus detorta unius cujusque natura, toto statem
pectore, arriperet artes honestas."---- _Tacitus de Orat.
Dial. 28._
The historian then proceeds to mention the corruption of
manners, and the vicious mode of Education, in the later ages
of Rome. He says, children were committed to some maid, with
the vilest slaves; with whom they were initiated in their low
conversation and manners. "Horum fabulis et erroribus teneri
slatim et rudes animi imbuuntur; nec quis quam in toto domo
pensi habet, quid coram infante domino aut dicat aut
faciat."---- _Ibid. 29._
Gracious Heavens! Must the wretches, who have forfeited their lives, and
been pronounced unworthy to be inhabitants of a _foreign_ country, be
entrusted with the Education, the morals, the character of _American_
youth?
Will it be denied that many of the instructors of youth, whose examples
and precepts should form their minds for good men and useful citizens,
are often found to sleep away, in school, the fumes of a debauch, and to
stun the ears of their pupils with frequent blasphemy? It is idle to
suppress such truths; nay more, it is wicked. The practice of employing
low and vicious characters to direct the studies of youth, is, in a high
degree, criminal; it is destructive of the order and peace of society;
it is treason against morals, and of course, against government; it
ought to be arraigned before the tribunal of reason, and condemned by
all intelligent beings. The practice is so exceedingly absurd, that it
is surprising it could ever have prevailed among rational people.
Parents wish their children to be _well bred_, yet place them under the
care of _clowns_. They wish to secure their hearts from _vicious
principles_ and _habits_, yet commit them to the care of men of the most
_profligate lives_. They wish to have their children taught _obedience_
and _respect_ for superiors, yet give them a master that both parents
and children _despise_. A practice so glaringly absurd and irrational
has no name in any language! Parents themselves will not associate with
the men, whose company they _oblige_ their children to keep, even in
that most important period, when habits are forming for life.[6]
[6] The practice of employing low characters in schools is
not novel--Ascham, preceptor to Queen Elizabeth, gives us the
following account of the practice in his time. "Pity it is
that commonly more care is had; yea and that among very wise
men, to find out rather a cunning man for their horse, than a
cunning man for their children. They say, nay, in word; but
they do so, in deed. For to one they will give a stipend of
two hundred crowns, and loth to offer the other two hundred
shillings. God, that sitteth in the Heaven, laugheth their
choice to scorn and rewardeth their liberality as it should:
for he suffereth them to have _tame_ and _well ordered
horses_; but _wild_ and _unfortunate children_: and therefore
in the end they find more pleasure in their horse, than
comfort in their child."
This is _old language_, but the facts stated are _modern
truths_. The barbarous Gothic practice has survived all the
attacks of common sense, and in many parts of America, a
gentleman's groom is on a level with his schoolmaster, in
point of reputation. But hear another authority for the
practice in England.
"As the case now stands, those of the first quality pay their
_tutors_ but little above half so much as they do their
_footmen_."--_Guardian_, No. 94.
"'Tis monstrous indeed that men of the best estates and
families are more solicitous about the tutelage of a favorite
_dog_ or _horse_, than of their _heirs mate_."--_Ibm._
Are parents and guardians ignorant, that children always imitate those
with whom they live or associate? That a boy, bred in the woods, will be
a savage? That another, bred in the army, will have the manners of a
soldier? That a third, bred in a kitchen, will speak the language, and
possess the ideas, of servants? And that a fourth, bred in genteel
company, will have the manners of a gentleman? We cannot believe that
many people are ignorant of these truths. Their conduct therefore can be
ascribed to nothing but inattention or fear of expense. It is perhaps
literally true, that a wild life among savages is preferable to an
Education in a kitchen, or under a drunken tutor; for savages would
leave the mind uncorrupted with the vices, which reign among slaves and
the depraved part of civilized nations. It is therefore a point of
infinite importance to society, that youth should not associate with
persons whose manners they ought not to imitate; much less should they
be doomed to pass the most susceptable period of life, with clowns,
profligates and slaves.
There are people so ignorant of the constitution of our natures, as to
declare, that young people should see vices and their consequences, that
they may learn to detest and shun them. Such reasoning is like that of
the novel writers, who attempt to defend their delineations of abandoned
characters; and that of stage players, who would vindicate the obscene
exhibitions of a theater; but the reasoning is totally false.[7] Vice
always spreads by being published; young people are taught many vices by
fiction, books or public exhibitions; vices, which they never would have
known, had they never read such books or attended such public places.
Crimes of all kinds, vices, judicial trials necessarily obscene, and
infamous punishments, should, if possible, be concealed from the young.
An examination in a court of justice may teach the tricks of a knave,
the arts of a thief, and the evasions of hackneyed offenders, to a dozen
young culprits, and even tempt those who have never committed a crime,
to make a trial of their skill. A newspaper may spread crimes; by
communicating to a nation the knowlege of an ingenious trick of
villainy, which, had it been suppressed, might have died with its first
inventor. It is not true that the effects of vice and crimes deter
others from the practice; except when rarely seen. On the other hand,
frequent exhibitions either cease to make any impressions on the minds
of spectators, or else reconcile them to a course of life, which at
first was disagreeable.
[7] The fact related by Justin, of an ancient people, will
apply universally. "Tanto plus in illis proficit victiorum
ignoratio, quam in his cognitio virtutis." An ignorance of
vice has a better effect, than a knowlege of virtue.
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
For these reasons, children should keep the best of company, that they
might have before them the best manners, the best breeding, and the best
conversation. Their minds should be kept untainted, till their reasoning
faculties have acquired strength, and the good principles which may be
planted in their minds, have taken deep root. They will then be able to
make a firm and probably a successful resistance, against the attacks
of secret corruption and brazen libertinism.
Our legislators frame laws for the suppression of vice and immorality;
our divines thunder, from the pulpit, the terrors of infinite wrath,
against the vices that stain the characters of men. And do laws and
preaching effect a reformation of manners? Experience would not give a
very favorable answer to this inquiry. The reason is obvious; the
attempts are directed to the wrong objects. Laws can only check the
public effects of vicious principles; but can never reach the principles
themselves; and preaching is not very intelligible to people, till they
arrive at an age when their principles are rooted, or their habits
firmly established. An attempt to eradicate old habits, is as absurd, as
to lop off the branches of a huge oak, in order to root it out of a rich
soil. The most that such clipping will effect, is to prevent a further
growth.
The only practicable method to reform mankind, is to begin with
children; to banish, if possible, from their company, every low bred,
drunken, immoral character. Virtue and vice will not grow together in a
great degree, but they will grow where they are planted, and when one
has taken root, it is not easily supplanted by the other. The great art
of correcting mankind therefore, consists in prepossessing the mind with
good principles.
For this reason society requires that the Education of youth should be
watched with the most scrupulous attention. Education, in a great
measure, forms the moral characters of men, and morals are the basis of
government.[8] Education should therefore be the first care of a
Legislature; not merely the institution of schools, but the furnishing
of them with the best men for teachers. A good system of Education
should be the first article in the code of political regulations; for it
is much easier to introduce and establish an effectual system for
preserving morals, than to correct, by penal statutes, the ill effects
of a bad system. I am so fully persuaded of this, that I shall almost
adore that great man, who shall change our practice and opinions, and
make it respectable for the first and best men to superintend the
Education of youth.
[8] Plus ibi boni mores valent, quam alibi bonæ leges.
Tac. de Mor. Germ. 19.
Another defect in our schools, which, since the revolution, is become
inexcuseable, is the want of proper books. The collections which are now
used consist of essays that respect foreign and ancient nations. The
minds of youth are perpetually led to the history of Greece and Rome or
to Great Britain; boys are constantly repeating the declamations of
Demosthenes and Cicero, or debates upon some political question in the
British Parliment. These are excellent specimens of good sense, polished
stile and perfect oratory; but they are not interesting to children.
They cannot be very useful, except to young gentlemen who want them as
models of reasoning and eloquence, in the pulpit or at the bar.
But every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He
should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him
in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse
the history of his own country; he should lisp the praise of liberty,
and of those illustrious heroes and statesmen, who have wrought a
revolution in her favor.
A selection of essays, respecting the settlement and geography of
America; the history of the late revolution and of the most remarkable
characters and events that distinguished it, and a compendium of the
principles of the federal and provincial governments, should be the
principal school book in the United States. These are interesting
objects to every man; they call home the minds of youth and fix them
upon the interests of their own country, and they assist in forming
attachments to it, as well as in enlarging the understanding.
"It is observed by the great Montesquieu, that the laws of education
ought to be relative to the principles of the government."[9]
[9] Spirit of Laws. Book 4.
In despotic governments, the people should have little or no education,
except what tends to inspire them with a servile fear. Information is
fatal to despotism.
In monarchies, education should be partial, and adapted to the rank of
each class of citizens. But "in a republican government," says the same
writer, "the whole power of education is required." Here every class of
people should _know_ and _love_ the laws. This knowlege should be
diffused by means of schools and newspapers; and an attachment to the
laws may be formed by early impressions upon the mind.
Two regulations are essential to the continuance of republican
governments: 1. Such a distribution of lands and such principles of
descent and alienation, as shall give every citizen a power of acquiring
what his industry merits.[10] 2. Such a system of education as gives
every citizen an opportunity of acquiring knowlege and fitting himself
for places of trust. These are fundamental articles; the _sine qua non_
of the existence of the American republics.
[10] The power of entailing real estates is repugnant to the
spirit of our American governments.
Hence the absurdity of our copying the manners and adopting the
institutions of Monarchies.
In several States, we find laws passed, establishing provision for
colleges and academies, where people of property may educate their sons;
but no provision is made for instructing the poorer rank of people, even
in reading and writing. Yet in these same States, every citizen who is
worth a few shillings annually, is entitled to vote for legislators.[11]
This appears to me a most glaring solecism in government. The
constitutions are _republican_, and the laws of education are
_monarchical_. The _former_ extend civil rights to every honest
industrious man; the _latter_ deprive a large proportion of the citizens
of a most valuable privilege.
[11] I have known instructions from the inhabitants of a
county, two thirds of whom could not write their names. How
competent must such men be to decide an important point in
legislation!
In our American republics, where government is in the hands of the
people, knowlege should be universally diffused by means of public
schools. Of such consequence is it to society, that the people who make
laws, should be well informed, that I conceive no Legislature can be
justified in neglecting proper establishments for this purpose.
When I speak of a diffusion of knowlege, I do not mean merely a knowlege
of spelling books, and the New Testament. An acquaintance with ethics,
and with the general principles of law, commerce, money and government,
is necessary for the yeomanry of a republican state. This acquaintance
they might obtain by means of books calculated for schools, and read by
the children, during the winter months, and by the circulation of public
papers.
"In Rome it was the common exercise of boys at school, to learn the laws
of the twelve tables by heart, as they did their poets and classic
authors."[12] What an excellent practice this in a free government!
[12] Middleton's life of Cicero, volume 1, page 14.
It is said, indeed by many, that our common people are already too well
informed. Strange paradox! The truth is, they have too much knowlege and
spirit to resign their share in government, and are not sufficiently
informed to govern themselves in all cases of difficulty.
There are some acts of the American legislatures which astonish men of
information; and blunders in legislation are frequently ascribed to bad
intentions. But if we examin the men who compose these legislatures, we
shall find that wrong measures generally proceed from ignorance either
in the men themselves, or in their constituents. They often mistake
their own interest, because they do not foresee the remote consequences
of a measure.
It may be true that all men cannot be legislators; but the more
generally knowlege is diffused among the substantial yeomanry, the more
perfect will be the laws of a republican state.
Every small district should be furnished with a school, at least four
months in a year; when boys are not otherwise employed. This school
should be kept by the most reputable and well informed man in the
district. Here children should be taught the usual branches of learning:
submission to superiors and to laws; the moral or social duties; the
history and transactions of their own country; the principles of liberty
and government. Here the rough manners of the wilderness should be
softened, and the principles of virtue and good behaviour inculcated.
The _virtues_ of men are of more consequence to society than their
_abilities_; and for this reason, the _heart_ should be cultivated with
more assiduity than the _head_.
Such a general system of education is neither impracticable nor
difficult; and excepting the formation of a federal government that
shall be efficient and permanent, it demands the first attention of
American patriots. Until such a system shall be adopted and pursued;
until the Statesman and Divine shall unite their efforts in _forming_
the human mind, rather than in loping its excressences, after it has
been neglected; until Legislators discover that the only way to make
good citizens and subjects, is to nourish them from infancy; and until
parents shall be convinced that the _worst_ of men are not the proper
teachers to make the _best_; mankind cannot know to what a degree of
perfection society and government may be carried. America affords the
fairest opportunities for making the experiment, and opens the most
encouraging prospect of success.[13]
[13] It is worthy of remark, that in proportion as laws are
favorable to the equal rights of men, the number of crimes in
a state is diminished; except where the human mind is debased
by extreme servitude, or by superstition. In France, there
are but few crimes; religion and the rigor of a military
force prevent them; perhaps also, ignorance in the peasantry
may be assigned as another reason. But in England and Ireland
the human mind is not so depressed, yet the distribution of
property and honors is not equal; the lower classes of
people, bold and independent, as well as poor, feel the
injuries which flow from the feudal system, even in its
relaxed state; they become desperate, and turn highwaymen.
Hence those kingdoms produce more culprits than half Europe
besides.
The character of the Jews, as sharpers, is derived from the
cruel and villanous proscriptions, which they have suffered
from the bigotry of Christians in every part of Europe.
Most of the criminals condemned in America are foreigners.
The execution of a native, before the revolution, was a
novelty. The distribution of property in America and the
principles of government favor the rights of men; and but few
men will commence enemies to society and government, if they
can receive the benefits of them. Unjust governments and
tyrannical distinctions have made most of the villains that
ever existed.
In a system of education, that should embrace every part of the
community, the female sex claim no inconsiderable share of our
attention.
The women in America (to their honor it is mentioned) are not generally
above the care of educating their own children. Their own education
should therefore enable them to implant in the tender mind, such
sentiments of virtue, propriety and dignity, as are suited to the
freedom of our governments. Children should be treated as children, but
as children that are, in a future time, to be men and women. By treating
them as if they were always to remain children, we very often see their
childishness adhere to them, even in middle life. The silly language
called _baby talk_, in which most persons are initiated in infancy,
often breaks out in discourse, at the age of forty, and makes a man
appear very ridiculous.[14] In the same manner, vulgar, obscene and
illiberal ideas, imbibed in a nursery or a kitchen, often give a
tincture to the conduct through life. In order to prevent every evil
bias, the ladies, whose province it is to direct the inclinations of
children on their first appearance, and to choose their nurses, should
be possessed, not only of amiable manners, but of just sentiments and
enlarged understandings.
[14] It has been already observed that a child always
imitates what he sees and hears: For this reason, he should
hear no language which is not correct and decent. Every word
spoken to a child, should be pronounced with clearness and
propriety. Banish from children all diminutive words, all
whining and all bad grammar. A boy of six years old may be
taught to speak as correctly, as Cicero did before the Roman
Senate.
But the influence of women in forming the dispositions of youth, is not
the sole reason why their education should be particularly guarded;
their influence in controling the manners of a nation, is another
powerful reason. Women, once abandoned, may be instrumental in
corrupting society; but such is the delicacy of the sex, and such the
restraints which custom imposes upon them, that they are generally the
last to be corrupted. There are innumerable instances of men, who have
been restrained from a vicious life, and even of very abandoned men, who
have been reclaimed, by their attachment to ladies of virtue. A fondness
for the company and conversation of ladies of character, may be
considered as a young man's best security against the attractives of a
dissipated life. A man who is attached to _good_ company, seldom
frequents that which is _bad_. For this reason, society requires that
females should be well educated, and extend their influence as far as
possible over the other sex.
But a distinction is to be made between a _good_ education, and a
_showy_ one; for an education, merely superficial, is a proof of
corruption of taste, and has a mischievous influence on manners. The
education of females, like that of males, should be adapted to the
principles of the government, and correspond with the stage of society.
Education in Paris differs from that in Petersburg, and the education of
females in London or Paris should not be a model for the Americans to
copy.
In all nations a _good_ education, is that which renders the ladies
correct in their manners, respectable in their families, and agreeable
in society. That education is always _wrong_, which raises a woman above
the duties of her station.
In America, female education should have for its object what is
_useful_. Young ladies should be taught to speak and write their own
language with purity and elegance; an article in which they are often
deficient. The French language is not necessary for ladies. In some
cases it is convenient, but, in general, it may be considered as an
article of luxury. As an accomplishment, it may be studied by those
whose attention is not employed about more important concerns.
Some knowlege of arithmetic is necessary for every lady. Geography
should never be neglected. Belles Letters learning seems to correspond
with the dispositions of most females. A taste for Poetry and fine
writing should be cultivated; for we expect the most delicate sentiments
from the pens of that sex, which is possessed of the finest feelings.
A course of reading can hardly be prescribed for all ladies. But it
should be remarked, that this sex cannot be too well acquainted with the
writers upon human life and manners. The Spectator should fill the first
place in every lady's library. Other volumes of periodical papers, tho
inferior to the Spectator, should be read; and some of the best
histories.
With respect to novels, so much admired by the young, and so generally
condemned by the old, what shall I say? Perhaps it may be said with
truth, that some of them are useful, many of them pernicious, and most
of them trifling. A hundred volumes of modern novels may be read,
without acquiring a new idea. Some of them contain entertaining stories,
and where the descriptions are drawn from nature, and from characters
and events in themselves innocent, the perusal of them may be harmless.
Were novels written with a view to exhibit only one side of human
nature, to paint the social virtues, the world would condemn them as
defective: But I should think them more perfect. Young people,
especially females, should not see the vicious part of mankind. At best
novels may be considered as the toys of youth; the rattle boxes of
sixteen. The mechanic gets his pence for his toys, and the novel writer,
for his books; and it would be happy for society, if the latter were in
all cases as innocent play things as the former.
In the large towns in America, music, drawing and dancing, constitute a
part of female education. They, however, hold a subordinate rank; for my
fair friends will pardon me, when I declare, that no man ever marries a
woman for her performance on a harpsichord, or her figure in a minuet.
However ambitious a woman may be to command admiration _abroad_, her
real merit is known only at _home_. Admiration is useless, when it is
not supported by domestic worth. But real honor and permanent esteem,
are always secured by those who preside over their own families with
dignity.[15]
[15] Nothing can be more fatal to domestic happiness in
America, than a taste for copying the luxurious manners and
amusements of England and France. Dancing, drawing and music,
are principal articles of education in those kingdoms;
therefore every girl in America must pass two or three years
at a boarding school, tho her father cannot give her a
farthing when she marries. This ambition to educate females
above their fortunes pervades every part of America. Hence
the disproportion between the well bred females and the males
in our large towns. A mechanic or shopkeeper in town, or a
farmer in the country, whose sons get their living by their
father's employments, will send their daughters to a boarding
school, where their ideas are elevated, and their views
carried above a connexion with men in those occupations. Such
an education, without fortune or beauty, may possibly please
a girl of fifteen, but must prove her greatest misfortune.
This fatal mistake is illustrated in every large town in
America. In the country, the number of males and females, is
nearly equal; but in towns, the number of genteelly bred
women is greater than of men; and in some towns, the
proportion is, as three to one.
The heads of young people of both sexes are often turned by
reading descriptions of splendid living, of coaches, of
plays, and other amusements. Such descriptions excite a
desire to enjoy the same pleasures. A fortune becomes the
principal object of pursuit; fortunes are scarce in America,
and not easily acquired; disappointment succeeds, and the
youth who begins life with expecting to enjoy a coach, closes
the prospect with a small living, procured by labor and
economy.
Thus a wrong education, and a taste for pleasures which our
fortune will not enable us to enjoy, often plunge the
Americans into distress, or at least prevent early marriages.
Too fond of show, of dress and expense, the sexes wish to
please each other; they mistake the means, and both are
disappointed.
Before I quit this subject, I beg leave to make some remarks on a
practice which appears to be attended with important consequences; I
mean that of sending boys to Europe for an education, or sending to
Europe for teachers. This was right before the revolution; at least so
far as national attachments where concerned; but the propriety of it
ceased with our political relation to Great Britain.
In the first place, our honor as an independent nation is concerned in
the establishment of literary institutions, adequate to all our own
purposes; without sending our youth abroad, or depending on other
nations for books and instructors. It is very little to the reputation
of America to have it said abroad, that after the heroic atchievements
of the late war, these independent people are obliged to send to Europe
for men and books to teach their children A B C.
But in another point of view, a foreign education is directly opposite
to our political interests, and ought to be discountenanced, if not
prohibited.
Every person of common observation will grant, that most men prefer the
manners and the government of that country where they are educated. Let
ten American youths be sent, each to a different European kingdom, and
live there from the age of twelve to twenty, and each will give the
preference to the country where he has resided.
The period from twelve to twenty is the most important in life. The
impressions made before that period are commonly effaced; those that are
made during that period _always_ remain for many years; and _generally_
thro life.
Ninety nine persons of a hundred who pass that period in England or
France, will prefer the people, their manners, their laws, and their
government, to those of their nativ country. Such attachments are
injurious, both to the happiness of the men, and to the political
interests of their own country. As to private happiness, it is
universally known how much pain a man suffers by a change of habits in
living. The customs of Europe are and ought to be different from ours;
but when a man has been bred in one country, his attachments to its
manners make them, in a great measure, necessary to his happiness. On
changing his residence, he must therefore break his former habits, which
is always a painful sacrifice; or the discordance between the manners
of his own country, and his habits, must give him incessant uneasiness;
or he must introduce, into a circle of his friends, the manners in which
he was educated. These consequences may follow, and the last, which is
inevitable, is a public injury. The refinement of manners in every
country should keep pace exactly with the increase of its wealth; and
perhaps the greatest evil America now feels is, an improvement of taste
and manners which its wealth cannot support.
A foreign education is the very source of this evil; it gives young
gentlemen of fortune a relish for manners and amusements which are not
suited to this country; which however, when introduced by this class of
people, will always become fashionable.
But a corruption of manners is not the sole objection to a foreign
education: An attachment to a _foreign_ government, or rather a want of
attachment to our _own_, is the natural effect of a residence abroad,
during the period of youth. It is recorded of one of the Greek cities,
that in a treaty with their conquerors, it was required that they should
give a certain number of _male children_ as hostages for the fulfilment
of their engagements. The Greeks absolutely refused, on the principle
that these children would imbibe the ideas and embrace the manners of
foreigners, or lose their love for their own country: But they offered
the same number of _old_ men, without hesitation. This anecdote is full
of good sense. A man should always form his habits and attachments in
the country where he is to reside for life. When these habits are
formed, young men may travel without danger of losing their patriotism.
A boy who lives in England from twelve to twenty, will be an
_Englishman_ in his manners and his feelings; but let him remain at home
till he is twenty, and form his attachments, he may then be several
years abroad, and still be an _American_.[16] There may be exceptions to
this observation; but living examples may be mentioned to prove the
truth of the general principle here advanced, respecting the influence
of habit.
[16] Cicero was twenty eight years old when he left Italy to
travel into Greece and Asia. "He did not stir abroad," says
Dr. Middleton, "till he had completed his education at home;
for nothing can be more pernicious to a nation, than the
necessity of a foreign one."--_Life of Cicero, vol. 1. p.
48._
Dr. Moore makes a remark precisely in point. Speaking of a
foreign education, proposed by a certain Lord, who objected
to the public schools in England, he says, "I have attended
to his Lordship's objections, and after due consideration,
and weighing every circumstance, I remain of opinion, that no
country but Great Britain is proper for the education of a
British subject, who proposes to pass his life in his own
country. The most important point, in my mind, to be secured
in the education of a young man of rank of our country, is to
make him an Englishman; and this can be done no where so
effectually as in England." See his _View of Society and
Manners_, &c. vol. 1, page 197, where the reader will find
many judicious remarks upon this subject. The following are
too pertinent to be omitted.--"It is thought, that by an
early foreign education, all ridiculous English prejudices,
will be avoided. This may be true; but other prejudices,
perhaps as ridiculous, and much more detrimental, will be
formed. The first cannot be attended with many
inconveniencies; the second may render the young people
unhappy in their own country when they return, and
disagreeable to their countrymen all the rest of their
lives." These remarks, by a change of names are applicable to
America.
It may be said that foreign universities furnish much better
opportunities of improvement in the sciences than the American. This may
be true, and yet will not justify the practice of sending young lads
from their own country. There are some branches of science which may be
studied to much greater advantage in Europe than in America,
particularly chymistry. When these are to be acquired, young gentlemen
ought to spare no pains to attend the best professors. It may,
therefore, be useful, in some cases, for students to cross the atlantic
to _complete_ a course of studies; but it is not necessary for them to
go early in life, nor to continue a long time. Such instances need not
be frequent even now; and the necessity for them will diminish in
proportion to the future advancement of literature in America.
It is, however, much questioned, whether, in the ordinary course of
study, a young man can enjoy greater advantages in Europe than in
America. Experience inclines me to raise a doubt, whether the danger to
which a youth must be exposed among the sons of dissipation abroad, will
not turn the scale in favor of our American colleges. Certain it is,
that four fifths of the great literary characters in America never
crossed the atlantic.
But if our universities and schools are not so good as the English or
Scotch, it is the business of our rulers to improve them, not to endow
them merely; for endowments alone will never make a flourishing
seminary; but to furnish them with professors of the first abilities and
most assiduous application, and with a complete apparatus for
establishing theories by experiments. Nature has been profuse to the
Americans, in genius, and in the advantages of climate and soil. If this
country, therefore, should long be indebted to Europe for opportunities
of acquiring any branch of science in perfection, it must be by means of
a criminal neglect of its inhabitants.
The difference in the nature of the American and European governments,
is another objection to a foreign education. Men form modes of
reasoning, or habits of thinking on political subjects, in the country
where they are bred; these modes of reasoning may be founded on fact in
all countries; but the same principles will not apply in all
governments, because of the infinite variety of national opinions and
habits. Before a man can be a good Legislator, he must be intimately
acquainted with the temper of the people to be governed. No man can be
thus acquainted with a people, without residing amongst them and
mingling with all companies. For want of this acquaintance, a Turgot and
a Price may reason most absurdly upon the Constitutions of the American
states; and when any person has been long accustomed to believe in the
propriety or impropriety of certain maxims or regulations of government,
it is very difficult to change his opinions, or to persuade him to adapt
his reasoning to new and different circumstances.
One half the European Protestants will now contend that the Roman
Catholic religion is subversive of civil government. Tradition, books,
education, have concurred to fix this belief in their minds; and they
will not resign their opinions, even in America, where some of the
highest civil offices are in the hands of Roman Catholics.
It is therefore of infinite importance that those who direct the
councils of a nation, should be educated in that nation. Not that they
should restrict their personal acquaintance to their own country, but
their first ideas, attachments and habits should be acquired in the
country which they are to govern and defend. When a knowlege of their
own country is obtained, and an attachment to its laws and interests
deeply fixed in their hearts, then young gentlemen may travel with
infinite advantage and perfect safety. I wish not therefore to
discourage travelling, but, if possible, to render it more useful to
individuals and to the community. My meaning is, that _men_ should
travel, and not _boys_.
It is time for the Americans to change their usual route, and travel
thro a country which they never think of, or think beneeth their notice:
I mean the United States.
While these States were a part of the British Empire, our interest, our
feelings, were those of Englishmen; our dependence led us to respect and
imitate their manners, and to look up to them for our opinions. We
little thought of any national interest in America; and while our
commerce and governments were in the hands of our parent country, and we
had no common interest, we little thought of improving our acquaintance
with each other, or of removing prejudices, and reconciling the
discordant feelings of the inhabitants of different Provinces. But
independence and union render it necessary that the citizens of
different States should know each others characters and circumstances;
that all jealousies should be removed; that mutual respect and
confidence should succeed, and a harmony of views and interests be
cultivated by a friendly intercourse.
A tour thro the United States ought now to be considered as a necessary
part of a liberal education. Instead of sending young gentlemen to
Europe to view curiosities and learn vices and follies, let them spend
twelve or eighteen months in examining the local situation of the
different States; the rivers, the soil, the population, the improvements
and commercial advantages of the whole; with an attention to the spirit
and manners of the inhabitants, their laws, local customs and
institutions. Such a tour should at least precede a tour to Europe; for
nothing can be more ridiculous than a man travelling in a foreign
country for information, when he can give no account of his own. When,
therefore, young gentlemen have finished an academic education, let them
travel thro America, and afterwards to Europe, if their time and
fortunes will permit. But if they cannot make a tour thro both, that in
America is certainly to be preferred; for the people of America, with
all their information, are yet extremely ignorant of the geography,
policy and manners of their neighbouring States. Except a few gentlemen
whose public employments in the army and in Congress, have extended
their knowlege of America, the people in this country, even of the
higher classes, have not so correct information respecting the United
States, as they have respecting England or France. Such ignorance is not
only disgraceful, but is materially prejudicial to our political
friendship and federal operations.
Americans, unshackle your minds, and act like independent beings. You
have been children long enough, subject to the control, and subservient
to the interest of a haughty parent. You have now an interest of your
own to augment and defend: You have an empire to raise and support by
your exertions, and a national character to establish and extend by your
wisdom and virtues. To effect these great objects, it is necessary to
frame a liberal plan of policy, and build it on a broad system of
education. Before this system can be formed and embraced, the Americans
must _believe_, and _act_ from the belief, that it is dishonorable to
waste life in mimicking the follies of other nations and basking in the
sunshine of foreign glory.
No. II.