312. STUDIES OF NATURE. 



riiptlon *, and that in every country where fathers 

 are good, the children refemble them. 



I could 



* To certain fpecies of chailifement, I afcribe the phyfical 

 and moral corruption, not only of children, and of feveral orders 

 of monks, but of the Nation itfelf. You cannot move a ftep 

 through the ftreets, without hearing nurfes and mothers me- 

 nacing their little charge with, / fiall give you a flogging. I 

 have never been in England, but I am perfuaded, that the fero- 

 city imputed to the Englifh, mufl proceed from fome fuch caufe. 

 I have indeed heard it affirmed, that punifliment by the rod was 

 more cruel, and more frequent, among them, than with us. See 

 what is faid on this fubjeft by the illuftrious Authors of the Spec- 

 tator., a Work which has, beyond contradiction, greatly contri- 

 buted to foften both their manners and ours. They reproach 

 the Englifh Nobility, for permitting this charaéler of infamy to 

 be imprefled on their children. Confult, particularly. No. 

 CLVII. of that Colleélion, which concludes thus : " I would 

 " not here be fuppofed to have faid, that our learned men of 

 '* either robe, who have been whipped at fchool, are not ftill 

 *' men of noble and liberal minds ; but I am fure they had been 

 *' much more fo than they are, had they never fuffered that in- 

 •' famy." 



Government ought to profcribe thfs kind of chaftifement, not 

 only in the public fchools, as Ruffia has done, but in convents, 

 on ihipboard, in private families, in boarding houfes : it cor- 

 rupts, at once, fathers, mothers, preceptors, and children. I 

 could quote terrible re-aftions of it, did modefty permit. Is it 

 not very aftonifliing, that men, in other refpefts, of a ftaid and 

 ferious exterior, fliould lay down, as the bafis of a Chriftian edu- 

 cation, the obfervance of gentlenefs, humanity, chaftity ; and 

 punilh timid and innocent children, with the moft barbarous, 

 and the moil obfcene of all chaftifements ? Our men of letters, 



who 



