ANIMALS 185 



or eleven, at which the former has attained so much perfection ; with 

 them the mind is to be kept empty, until it has a proper distinction 

 of some metaphysical ideas about truth, and the promising pupil is 

 debarred the use of even his own faculties, lest they should conduct 

 him into prejudice and error. In this manner some men whom fashion 

 has celebrated for profound and fine thinkers, have given their hazarded 

 and untried conjectures, upon one of the most important subjects in 

 the world, and the most interesting to humanity. When men specu- 

 late at liberty upon innate ideas, or the abstracted distinctions between 

 will and power, they may be permitted to enjoy their systems at plea- 

 sure, as they are harmless, although they may be wrong ; but when 

 they allege that children are to be every day plunged in cold water, 

 and, whatever be their constitutions, indiscriminately inured to cold 

 and moisture ; that they are to be kept wet in the feet, to prevent 

 their catching cold ; and never to be corrected when young, for fear 

 of breaking their spirits when old ; these are such noxious errors, that 

 all reasonable men should endeavour to oppose them. Many have 

 been the children whom these opinions, begun in speculation, have 

 injured or destroyed in practice ; and I have seen many a little phi- 

 losophical martyr, whom I wished, but was unable to relieve. 



If any system be therefore necessary, it is one that would serve to 

 show a very plain point ; that very little system is necessary. The 

 natural and common course of education is in every respect the best : 

 I mean that in which the child is permitted to play among its little 

 equals, from whose similar instructions it often gains the most useful 

 stores of knowledge. A child is not idle because it is playing about 

 the fields, or pursuing a butterfly ; it is all this time storing its mind 

 with objects upon the nature, the properties, and the relations of which 

 future curiosity may speculate. 



I have ever found it a vain task to try to make a child's learning its 

 amusement ; nor do I see what good- end it would answer were it 

 actually attained. The child, as was said, ought to have its share of 

 play, and it will be benefited thereby ; and for every reason also it 

 ought to have its share of labour. The mind, by early labour, will be 

 thus accustomed to fatigues and subordination ; and whatever be the 

 person's future employment in life, he will be better fitted to endure 

 it : he will be thus enabled to support the drudgeries of office with 

 content ; or to fill up the vacancies of life with variety. The child, 

 therefore, should by times be put to its duty ; and be taught to know, 

 that the task is to be done, or the punishment to be endured. I do 

 not object against alluring it to duty by reward ; but we well know 

 that the mind will become more strongly stimulated by pain ; and both 

 may, upon some occasions, take their turn to operate. In this man- 

 ner, a child, by playing with its equals abroad, and labouring with 

 them at school, will acquire more health and knowledge, than by be* 

 \ng bred up under the wing of any speculative system-maker ; and will 

 he thus qualified for a life of activity and obedience. It is true indeed, 

 that when educated in this manner, the boy may not be so seemingly 

 sensible and forward as one bred up under solitary instruction ; and, 

 perhaps, this early forwardness is more engaging than useful. It is 

 .veil known that many of those children who have been such urod- 



