> 
168 The Enquirer, No. XV. What is Education ? 
himfelf ; .a fmaller fill can be direéted by 
purchafed tuition of any kind. You 
engage for your child matters and tutors, 
at large falaries, and you do well, for 
they are competent to inftrnét him ; they 
will give him the means, at leaft, of ates 
quiring {cience and accomplifhments ; 
but in the bufinefs of education, properly 
fo calied, they can do little for you. Do 
you afk then, what will educate your fon ? 
Your example will educate him; your 
converfation with your friends ;_ the 
Bufinefs he fees you tranfact; the likings 
and diflikings you exprefs; fthefe will 
educate hisn---the fociety you live in 
will educate him; your domeftics will 
educate him ; above all, your rank and fi- 
tuation in life, your houfe, your table, 
your pleafure-grounds, your hounds and 
vour ftables will educate him. It 1s not 
in your power to withdraw him from the 
continual influence of thefe things, except 
you-were to withdraw yourfelf trom them 
alfo.. You fpeak of beginning the educa- 
tion of your fon. ‘The moment he was 
able to form an idea his education was al- 
ready begun; the education of circum- 
fiances—infenfible education—which, like 
infenfible perfpiration, is of more conitant 
and powerful effeét, and of infinitely 
more corifequence to the habit than that 
which is dire&t “and “apparent. This 
education goes on at every inftant of time; 
it coes on/zke time ; you can neither flop 
it nor furn its courfe. What thefe have 
a tendency to make your child, that he 
will be. Maxims and documents are 
good precifely till they are tried, and no 
jonger ; they willteach him to talk, and 
nothing more. ‘The crcumflauces in 
which your fon is ‘placed will be even 
more prevalent than your example; and 
you have no right to expect Aim to beeome 
what you yourfelf are, but by the fame 
means. You, that have toiled during 
youth,to fet your fon upon higher ground; 
and to enable him to begin where you 
left off, do not expect tliat fon to be 

what you were, diligent, medeit, active, 
dimple in his taftes, fertile in refources. 
You have put him under quite a different 
mafter. Poverty educated you; weaith 
will educate him. You cannot fuppose 
the refult will be the fame. You mutt 
not even expect that he will be what you 
mow are; for though relaxed perhaps from 
the feyemty or your frugal habits, you 
fill derive advantage from having formed: 
them ;‘and, im your heart, you lixe plain 
dinnerssiand early hours, and old friends, 
whenevenwour fortune will permit vou to 
enjoy tiicmad@eut sO5vid not be 10 with 
+ 
your fon: his taftes will be formed by 
your prefent fituation, and in no degree 
by your. former one. But I take great 
care, you will fay, to counteract. thefe 
tendencies, and to bring him up im hardy. 
and fimple manners. I know their value,’ 
and am refolved that he fhall acquire no 
other. Yes, you make him hardy ; that 
is to fay, you take a country-houfe ma 
good air, and make him run, well clothed | 
and carefully- attended, for, it may be, 
_an hour in a clear frofty winter’s day 
upon your gravelled terrace ; or perhaps 
you take the puny fhivering infant from 
his warm bed, and dip him m anicy cold 
bath, and -you think you have done great 
matters. And fo you have ; you have ’ 
done all youcan. But you were fuffered 
to run abroad half the day on a bleak 
heath, in weather fit and unfit, wading 
barefoot through dirty .ponds, fometimes: 
lofng your way benighted, fcrambling 
over hedges, climbing trees, in perils 
every hour both of life and limb. Your 
life was of very little confequence to any 
one; even your parents, encumbered with a 
numerous family, had little time to indulge 
the foftnefles of affection, or the folicitude 
of anxiety; and to every one elfe it was 
of no confequence atall. It is not pof- 
fible for you, it would not even be right 
for you, in your prefent fituation, to pay 
no more attention to your child than was 
paid to you. In thefe mimic experiments 
of education, there is always fomething 
which diftinguishes them from reality ; 
fome weak part left unfortified, for the 
arrows of misfortune to find their way 
into. Achilles was a young nobleman, 
dios Achilleus, and therefore, though he 
had Chiron for his. tutor, there was one 
foot left undipped. You may throw by 
Rouffeau ; your parents practiced without 
having read it; and you may read, but: 
imperious circumplances Sorbid you the 
practice of its fier 
You are fenfible of the advantages of 
fimplicity of diet, and you make a point 
of vefiricting that of your child to the 
plaineft food, tor you are refolyed that he 
ihall not be nice. But this plain food is 
of the choiceft quality, prepared by your 
own cock ; his fruit is ripened from your 
walls ; his cluth, his glaffes, all the ac-.. 
companiments ot the table, are fueh as 
are only met with in families of opulence; 
the very-fervants Who attend him are neat, 
well drefled, and have a ¢ertdin air of | 
fathion. “You mav call this fimplicity, 
butt fay he'will benice, for it is a-kind 
of implicity which only wealth can at- 
tain to, and which will fubjeét him te’ 
be 
