Bishop Percy has observed, that it might be discerned whether or not
there was a clergyman resident in a parish, by the civil or brutal
manners of the people; he might have thought that there never had
resided one in the Ban de la Roche, if he had seen the state of the
inhabitants when M. Stouber went thither to take possession of the
cure in the year 1750. He, who entered upon it with a determination
of doing his duty like a conscientious and energetic man, began first
by inquiring into the manner of education there; and asking for the
principal school, he was conducted to a miserable hovel, where there
were a number of children "crowded together without any occupation, and
in so wild and noisy a state, that it was with some difficulty he could
gain a reply to his inquiries for the master."
"There he is," said one of them, as soon as silence could be obtained,
pointing to a withered old man, who lay on a little bed in one corner of
the apartment.
"Are you the schoolmaster, my good friend?" inquired Stouber.
"Yes, sir."
"And what do you teach the children?"
"Nothing, sir."
"Nothing!--how is that?"
"Because," replied the old man, with characteristic simplicity, "I know
nothing myself."
"Why, then, were you instituted schoolmaster?"
"Why, sir, I had been taking care of the Waldbach pigs for a great
number of years, and when I got too old and infirm for that employment,
they sent me here to take care of the children."
* * * * *