nocence and virtue for a little Greek and Latin. For, as for that boldness and spirit which lads get among their play-fellows at school, it has ordinarily such a mixture of rudeness and ill-turned confidence, that those misbecoming and disingenuous ways of shifting in the world must be unlearned, and all the tincture washed out again to make way for better principles, and such manners as make a truly worthy man. He who considers how diametrically opposite the skill of living well and managing, as a man should do, his affairs in the world, is to the malapertness, tricking, or violence learned among school-boys, will think the faults of a private education infinitely to be preferred to such improvements, and will take care to preserve his child's innocence and modesty at home, as being nearer a-kin and more in the way of those qualities which make an useful and able man..

I therefore cannot but prefer breeding of a young gentleman at home in his father's sight under a good governor, as much the best and safest way to the great and main end of education, when it can be had, and is ordered as it should be. But what shall be resolved in this case must in, a great measure be left to the pa rents, to be determined by their circumstances and conveniences; only I think it the worst sort of good husbandry for a father not to strain himself a little for his son's breeding, which, let his condition be what it will, is the best portion he can leave him. But if after all it shall be thought by some, that the

breeding at home has too little company, and that at ordinary schools not such as it should be for a young gentleman, I think there might be ways found out to avoid the inconveniences on the one side and the other.

If you determine to have a private tutor for your son, do not be guided in your choice by the consideration of expense, if you are able to pay it; as it will be the money best laid out that can be about our children; and, therefore, though a person who possesses the necessary but rare qualifications of great sobriety, temperance, tenderness, diligence, and discretion, may be expensive more than is ordinary, yet it cannot be thought too dear. He that at any rate procures his child a good mind, well principled, tempered to virtue and usefulness, and adorned with civility and good breeding, makes a better purchase for him than if he had laid out the money for an addition of more earth to his former acres. But be sure take no body by the mere recommendation of friends, or from motives of charity; no, nor upon great commendations. Nay, if you will do as you ought, the reputation of a sober man, with a good stock of learning (which is all that is usually required in a tutor) will not be enough to serve your turn, as he should be perfectly well-bred, understanding the ways of carriage, and measures of civility in all the variety of persons, times, and places, and keep his pupil, as much as his age requires, constantly to the observation of them. In this choice, therefore, you must be as curious as you would be in that of a wife, for you must not think of making a trial or changing afterwards, as this will cause great inconvenience to you, and greater to your son.

When you have fixed on a tutor, you must be sure to use him with great respect yourself, and cause all your family to do so too; for you cannot expect your son should have any regard for one whom he sees you, or his mother, or others, slight.

As the father's example must teach the child respect for his tutor, so the tutor's example must lead the child into those actions he would have him do. His practice must by no means cross his precepts, unless he intend to set him wrong. It will be to no purpose for the tutor to talk of the restraint of the passions, whilst any of his own are let loose; and he will in vain endeavour to reform any vice or indecency in his pupil, which he allows in himself. Ill patterns are sure to be followed more than good rules; and therefore he must always carefully preserve him from the influence of ill precedents, especially the most dangerous of all, the examples of the servants, from whose company he is to be kept, not by prohibitions, for that will but give him an itch for it, but by being as much as may be in the company of his parents or tutor.—Locke.

Quintillian says, "that it is a false idea to suppose that the morals of boys are exposed to greater danger in public schools than at home. Were this the case, he said, he should not hesitate a moment in deciding in favour of a home education; as the care of living well is infinitely preferable to that of speaking well. But he says, that the danger is equal on both sides; that the whole depends upon the natural disposition of the children, and the care that is taken of their education; that usually the evil springs from the parents themselves, by the bad examples they set their children. They every day, says he, hear and see such things as they ought to be ignorant of during their lives. All this passes into habit, and soon after into nature.

The

poor children become vicious before they know what vice is. Thus, breathing nothing but luxury and pleasure, they do not derive their irregularity from the schools, but bring it thither."

A young man who has had a private retired education, usually grows languid and dejected; he rusts as it were, or, falling into an opposite extreme, becomes conceited, setting a greater value upon himself than upon others, from having no person to compare himself with. It is a fault, says Plutarch, which very much deserves to be condemned in parents, to think themselves entirely discharged from the care of watching over their children as soon as they are put into the hands of masters, and not to think any longer of being certified by their own eyes and ears of the progress they make in study and virtue. Besides this, it ill becomes a father in a matter of this importance, wherein he is so nearly concerned, blindly to rely upon the integrity of strangers; for it is certain,. that a father's care to inform himself from time to time, and take an account of his son's application and behaviour, may at the same time make both the scholars and masters more exact and diligent in the discharge of their several duties.

How just soever this duty is, and easy to be discharged, it is seldom that parents discharge it. They hardly ever concern themselves about the behaviour of their children when they are grown up and have left school; and most of them show such an indifference and neglect in this point as is scarcely to be imagined. Many excuse themselves under a pretence of business and employment; as if the education of

their children were not the most important of all, or the character of a father were effaced by that of magis trate, minister, or merchant.

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Crates the philosopher, wished to be on the most exalted eminence in the city, that he might cry aloud to the inhabitants," O, senseless generation! how "foolish are ye to think only of heaping up riches, "and absolutely to neglect the education of your "children, for whom you pretend to amass it!"

Parents pay sometimes very dear for their negli gence and avarice, when afterwards they have the grief to see their children abandoned to every kind of vice and debauchery, disgrace them in a thousand ways, and frequently squander away more money in one year, on the gratification of their passions, than parents would have spent in ten by giving them a good and virtuous education.

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In private houses, where a preceptor is obliged to attend his pupils all day long, it is wise in parents, and I may say it is for their interest also, to endeavour as much as possible to soften this restraint, by allowing the master one afternoon every week entirely to himself, and taking upon themselves the care of the children during that interval. No constitution can endure such continual confinement. A preceptor should have time to unbend, to visit his friends, to keep up his acquaintance, and to advise with them about his studies. It is not easy to express how much this condescension of the parents encourages the masters, and renders their zeal more lively and vigilant.