NOTE D. 



The early years of the lamented John Tweddell, 



&quot; Of all that virtue love for virtue loved,&quot; 

 were passed under the tuition of a most pious and affectionate mother. 



Bishop Watson thus speaks of his mother : &quot; My mother s maiden name was 

 Newton : she was a very charitable and good woman, and I am indebted to her 

 (I mention it with filial piety) for embuing my young mind with principles of 

 ivli Jon, which have never forsaken me. Erasmus, in his little treatise entitled 

 Autibarbarorum, says, that the safety of states depends upon three things 

 upon a proper or improper education of the prince, upon public preachers, and 

 upon schoolmasters; and he might with reason have added, upon mothers; 

 for the care of the mother precedes that of the schoolmaster, and may stamp 

 upon the rasa tabula of the infant mind, characters of virtue and religion which 

 no time can efface.&quot; Bishop Watson s Life, p. 7. ed. 4to. 1817. 



The care of the education of Sir William Jones devolved upon his mother, 

 who in many respects was eminently qualified for the task. Her character, as 

 delineated by her husband with somewhat of mathematical precision, is this, 

 that &quot; She was virtuous without blemish, generous without extravagance, frugal 

 but not niggard, cheerful but not giddy, close but not sullen, ingenious but not 

 conceited, of spirit but not passionate, of her company cautious, in her friend 

 ship trusty, to her parents dutiful, and to her husband ever faithful, loving, and 

 obedient.&quot; She had naturally a strong understanding, which was improved by 

 his conversation and instruction. Under his tuition she became a considerable 

 proficient in algebra ; and, with a view to qualify herself for the office of pre 

 ceptor to her sister s son, who was destined to a maritime profession, made her 

 self perfect in trigonometry and the theory of navigation. 



In the plan adopted by Mrs. Jones for the instruction of her son, she pro 

 posed to reject the severity of discipline, and to lead his mind insensibly to 

 knowledge and exertion, by exciting his curiosity and directing it to useful 

 objects. To his incessant importunities for information on casual topics of 

 conversation, which she watchfully stimulated, she constantly replied, &quot;read 

 and you will know,&quot; a maxim to the observance of which he always acknow 

 ledged himself indebted for his future attainments. By this method his desire 

 to learn became as eager as her wish to teach ; and such was her talent of 

 instruction and his facility of retaining it, that in his fourth year he was able to 

 read distinctly and rapidly any English book. She particularly attended at the 

 same time to the cultivation of his memory, by making him learn and repeat 

 some of the popular speeches in Shakespeare and the best of Gay s Fables. 



Among those mothers who may be recorded as having early succeeded by 

 widowhood to the father s place in the charge of education, we may enumerate 

 the mothers of St. Peter Celestine ; of Philip Beraldo, the elder ; of Bologna, 

 one of the greatest scholars of the fifteenth century ; of Bishop Fisher, and the 

 Protestant prelates Cranmer and Parker; of Papire Masson the historian, and 

 of Buchanan the poet : and in a later period, those of our own countrymen, 

 Bishop Brownrigg, Dr. Wallis the mathematician, Cowley the poet: and 

 abroad, the mothers of Leibnitz ; of Lami, of Florence. 



Bishop Hall thus speaks of his mother, &quot; How often have I blessed the 

 memory of those divine passages of experimental divinity which I have heard 

 from her mouth ! What day did she pass without a large task of private devo 

 tion, whence she would still come forth with a countenance of undissembled 

 mortification. Never any lips have read to me such feeling lectures of piety, 

 neither have 1 known any soul that more accurately practised them j then her 

 own temptations, desertions, and spiritual comforts, were her usual theme. 

 Shortly, for I can hardly take off my pen from so exemplary a subject, her life 

 and death were saint-like. 



The early letters of the mother of the late Right Hon. William Pitt shew the 

 powers of her mind and her affection. 



The comments of John Lovell Edgeworth, in his life ; and of Marmontel, in 

 his memoirs, are very interesting on this subject. 



See some valuable observations upon this subject, in Hints for the Improve 

 ment of early Education, Hatchard, 1822, written by Mrs. Iloare. 



