STUDY VII. 129 



^' fchools bas always given me much offence. 

 " They ought, at all hazards, certainly with much 

 " lefs difadvantage, to have adopted the ext erne 

 " of indulgence. Youth immured prtfents the 

 *' moft horrid of all gaols. To punifh a child be- 

 *' fore he is debauched, is an infallible method to 

 " debauch him. If you happen to pafs when the 

 '* leflbn is delivering, you hear nothing but the 

 *' cries of poor children undergoing chaftifemenr, 

 " and the ftorming of mafters intoxicated with 

 *' rage. What a method to infpire with the love 

 *' of learning, thofe tender and timid fpirits, ta 

 *' drive them to it with furly looks, aiid birchen- 

 '* armed hand! Unjuft, pernicious proceeding! 

 *' Add to this, what §luintilian has well remarked 

 *' on the fubjedl, that this imperious authority is 

 *' pregnant with the moft dangerous confequences, 

 *' particularly from the mode of chaftifemenr. 

 " How much more decent an appearance would 

 *' their clafles exhibit, ftrewed with flowers and 

 " verdant boughs, than with the f agments of 

 ** bloody rods ! I would have portrayed in them, 

 " Joy, Gaiety, Flora, the Graces, as the Philofo- 

 " pher Speufyppm had in his fchool. Where fliould 

 " their improvement be looked for, but where 

 " their pleafure is * ?" 



* Michael Montagne is, likewifq, one of thofe men who were 



not educated at college ; the time of his continuance there, at 



VOL. Ik K leaft. 



