253 
E D U C A 
for he who enjoys a fmall income, and has received the 
benefits of a liberal and philofophical education, is gene¬ 
rally found the moft happy, and mott refpeCtable cha¬ 
racter. Even the country curate, though his pittance 
is fmall, yet if he adheres to his fituation in life, and 
affeCts not the fportfman, or the man of expenfive and 
vicious pleafure, but has formed a tafie for the clafiics, 
for compofition, and for the contemplation of the works 
of nature ; who fpends his time in letters, and who ftudies 
virtue and innocence, fails not to receive the refpeft and 
love of all men. 
We may notice two kinds of education ; one of them 
confined, the other enlarged ; one, which only tends to 
qualify for a particular fphere of action, for a profefiion, 
or an official employment; the other, which endeavours 
to improve the powers of the underfianding, for the fake 
of exalting the endowments of human nature, and ren¬ 
dering it capable of fublime and refined contemplation. 
This conftitutes a broad and a firm bafis, on which any 
kind of fuperftru&ure may afterwards be raifed. It fur- 
niflies a power of finding fatisfadfory amufement for thofe 
hours of folitudc, which every man mu ft fometimesk mw 
even in the bufieft walks of life ; and it conftitutes one 
of the beft fupports of old age, as well as the moft gi ice- 
ful ornaments of manhood. Even in the commercial de¬ 
partment it is greatly defirable ; for befides that it gives 
a grace to the man in the aCtive ftage of life, and it the 
midft of his negociations, it enables him to enjoy his re¬ 
treat with elegance, when his induftry has been crowned 
with ample fuccefs. 
The modes of education purfued by the ancient Greeks, 
Romans, Cretans, &c. being foreign to the purpofe of 
the prefent article, will be found more appropriately ar¬ 
ranged under their refpeCtive heads, among the fubjects 
which to each of thole celebrated governments refpeCt- 
ively belong. With us it is of more importance to afcer- 
tain the era at which education fhould commence. To 
determine the queftion with accuracy, difcerhment muft 
be exercifed in dffcovering the different degrees of ex- 
panfion which different minds difplay, even at an infan¬ 
tine age. Upon the principle, that the earlieft impref- 
fions are the ntoft durable, and with a view to fave time 
for future improvements, it becomes evident that a child 
fhould be taught all that it can comprehend, as early as 
poflible. But fome few years muft neceffatijy elapfe, be¬ 
fore the fragility of childhood is capable of being 
launched upon the turbulent ocean of a fchdol. That 
this period 'fhould not be fo entirely neglected as it ufu- 
ally is, moft thinking people will allow. Tender as is the 
age of the pupil, fome inftruCtion may be conveyed 
through the medium of precept, and much through ma¬ 
ternal care. In this department of education, Locke’s 
Treatife may be confulted to confiderable advantage; 
and Rouffeau’s work is replete with excellent maxims, 
as far as the phyfical treatment of infancy is concerned. 
With regard to the latter writer, vilionary as his general 
fyftem may be, in this branch of it he may be followed 
with the happieft confequences; nor does he yield to 
any of his competitors, in an accurate knowledge of hu¬ 
man nature in its earlieft fta'ges. His prevailing foible is 
an attempt at brilliancy and novelty of thought, to the 
prejudice of fober and ufefnl difeuffion : but through 
the greater part of his introductory books, he abounds 
in real information, and facrifices the love of Angularity 
to the purfuit of valuable truths. His defeription of 
the various melancholy confequences which arife from 
the negleCt of the maternal duties, fhould be perufed be¬ 
times and unceafingly, till it obtains a permanent hold on 
the imagination. Let the glare of fafhionable pleafure 
be contrafted with the chafter colours in which Roufteau 
delineates domeftic felicity, and the illufion muft vanifh 
from before the eye of tafte and liberal fentiment. But, 
when he recommends it to his readers to direct all their 
attention to the culture of the corporeal powers, and even 
to reprefs the expanfion of the mental faculties, we lee 
VOL. VI. No. 347. 
T I O N. 
him tottering on the precipice of paradox, while the ut- 
moft caution fhould be given his unwary followers, how 
they commit themfelves to the perils of an untried path. 
The grounds on which he argues againft the expediency 
of infantine inftruCVion are, that the mind, not as yet 
fufficiently diferiminative, is incapable of diftinguifhing 
the true tendency of precept ; that it is therefore the 
belt policy to preferve the' tablet of the mind free from 
any impreffion, till it can receive its appropriate cha¬ 
racter, rather than hazard the contraction of prejudice, 
by bewildering the fenfes with too remote propofitions. 
But we cannot conceive it poflible, at any age, that the 
mind can continue a blank; if then we would prevent 
the intrufion of falfe opinions, we muft furnifh thofe 
which are juft; and though childhood may not be com¬ 
petent to fathom the depths of recondite philofophy, it 
may be taught to difeern the obligations of morality, and 
the force of obvious truths. It the progrefs of educa¬ 
tion, difficulties multiply ; but in its firft periods, the 
rules to be obferved are fimple and eafy, if fteadily 
purfued. To dedicate a clofe attention to inch a regi¬ 
men as may promote the health, ftrength, and unem- 
barraffed growth of the body ; to operate by gentle pro- 
greffion upon the tender intellect; to exhibit the equabi¬ 
lity of an amiable temper, and preclude the approach of 
dangerous example; above all, to perfevere in a calm 
and uniform method through the courfe of didactic and 
moral difeipline ; are the requifites'for difcharging the 
parental office with fidelity and fuccefs: 
Principiis obfa : fro mcdicina paratur, 
Cum mala per longas invaluere moras. 
The firft effort towards literary inftruCtion, is certainly 
that of communicating a knowledge of the alphabet to 
the child. The art of reading at firft: appears difficult 
to a very young boy ; but we daily fee the difficulty over¬ 
come at the age of five or fix. If it is not acquired about 
that time, we often obferve that the difficulty increafes 
with increufing years. For this reafon education fhould 
begin even in the nurfery ; and the mother and nurfe are 
certainly in the firft ftage the beft inftruCtors. A fenfible 
and good-tempered mother is, in every refpect, beft qua¬ 
lified to inftruCt a child, till he can read well enough to 
enter on the Latin grammar; and it has been found that 
thofe boys are the beft readers, on their entrance on La¬ 
tin, who had been prepared by maternal care. Neither 
let this office be confidered as degrading. Boys, tlius in- 
ftruCled, have feldom had vulgar tones, but have read 
with imufual cafe and elegance. But even they who 
have been taught to read by the nurfes, and by aged 
matrons, though they might have acquired difagreeable 
accents, have loon loft them again on receiving better 
inftrudtion, and on hearing better examples. And thefe 
early proficients in reading have always made a more 
rapid progrefs in their grammar, and in all clafiical learn¬ 
ing, than boys who were kept back by fanciful parents, 
left they fhould be injured by too early application, or 
catch the inelegant enunciation of an illiterate woman. 
Let then the child be tatight to read, as focn as the hu¬ 
man faculties begin to exhibit fymptoms of improvable 
expanfion; his attention, active in the extreme, will fix 
on a variety of objects. Let his book be one of thofe 
objects, though by no means the only one. Let no long 
confinement, and no feverity of reprimand or correction, 
attend the leffon. A little will be learned at the earlieft 
age, and with the eafieft: difeipline. That little will foon 
multiply, and lead to farther improvement ; and thus 
the boy, with little pain to himfelf or others, will quick¬ 
ly learn to read ; an acquifition, thus early in life, and in 
its confequences, truly great. He, on the othei hand, 
who is retarded, by the theoretical wildom of lih friends, 
till he is feven or eight years old, has- this burdenfome 
talk to begin-, when habits of idlenefs have been con¬ 
tracted, arid when lie ought to be acquiring the elements 
of grammar. 
3T 
To 
