History of Methodism. 547 



wood with money saved from his fellowship at Ox- 

 ford and raised by collections among his followers. 

 Thus from the beginning Methodism made provision 

 as well for the intellectual as for the religious life 

 which it had awakened. In a plain account of Kings- 

 wood School, printed in 1781, but written some time 

 before, Mr. Wesley says : 



About forty years ago one or two tracts fell into my hands which 

 led me to consider the methods pursued in that great school wherein 

 I had been educated, and in such others as were in highest repute, 

 particularly those in and near London. I spent many thoughts on 

 the subject, and frequently conversed upon it with some of the most 

 sensible men I knew. A few years after, I had an opportunity of 

 inquiring concerning some of the most celebrated schools in Holland 

 and Germany; but in these, as well as our own, I found a few par- 

 ticulars I could not approve of. One regarded the situation of them. 

 The most of them were placed in a great town, perhaps in the prin- 

 cipal town in that country. The children, whenever they went 

 abroad, had too many things to engage their thoughts, which ought 

 to be diverted as little as possible from the objects of their learning. 

 The promiscuous admission of all sorts of children into a great school 

 was another circumstance I did not admire. Are children likely 

 (suppose they had it) to retain much religion in a school where all 

 that offer are admitted, however corrupted already, perhaps, in prin- 

 ciple as well as practice? And what wonder when, as frequently 

 happens, the parents themselves have no more religion than their 

 ungodly offspring? A gentleman removed his son, then at West- 

 minster School, from boarding with my eldest brother, for teaching 

 him the Catechism, telling him, "Sir, I do not want my son to learn 

 religion, but Latin and Greek." A third inconvenience in many 

 schools is, the masters have no more religion than the scholars. Ev- 

 ery part of the nation abounds with masters of this kind, men who 

 are uninstructed in the very principles of Christianity, or quite in- 

 different as to the practice of it, "caring for none of these things." 

 But it is not only with regard to instruction in religion that most of 

 our great schools are defective. They are defective likewise (which 

 is a fourth objection) with regard to learning, and that in several re- 

 spects. In some, the children are taught little or no arithmetic; in 

 others, little care is taken of their writing; in many they learn 



