leisure enough also to make so much court to Madam Cloacina as would be necessary to our present purpose but else in the variety of Humane Affairs and Accidents it was impossible to affix it to any hour certain whereby the Custom would be interrupted Whereas Men in health seldom failing to eat once a Day tho' the Hour changed the Custom might still be preserved § 26. Upon these Grounds the Experiment began to be tried and I have known none who have been steady in the prosecution of it and taken care to go constantly to the necessary House after their first Eating when ever that happen'd whether they found themselves called on or no and there endeavoured to put Nature upon her Duty but in a few Months obtained the desired success and brought Nature to so regular an habit that they seldom ever failed of a Stool after their first Eating unless it were by their own neglect For whether they have any Motion or no if they go to the Place and do their part they are sure to have Nature very obedient § 27. I would therefore advise that this Course should be taken with a Child every day presently after he has eaten his Break-fast Let him be set upon the Stool as if disburthening were as much in his power as filling his Belly and let not him or his Maid know any thing to the Contrary but that it is so and if he be forced to endeavour by being hindred from his play or Eating again till he has been effectually at Stool or at least done his utmost I doubt not but in a little while it will become natural to him For there is reason to suspect that Children being usually intent on their Play and very heedless of any thing else often let pass those Motions of Nature when she calls them but gently and so they neglecting the seasonable Offers do by degrees bring themselves into an Habitual Costiveness That by his Method Costiveness may be prevented I do more than guess having known by the Constant Practice of it for some time a Child brought to have a Stool regularly after his Break-fast every Morning § 28. How far any grown People will think fit to make tryal of it I know not tho' I cannot but say that considering the many Evils that come from that Defect of a requisite easing of Nature I scarce know any thing more conducing to the Preservation of Health than this is Once in Four and Twenty hours I think is enough and no body I guess will think it too much and by this means it is to be obtained without Physick which commonly proves very ineffectual in the cure of a settled and habitual Costiveness § 29. This is all I have to trouble you with concerning his Management in the ordinary Course of his Health and perhaps it will be expected from me that I should give some Directions of Physick to prevent Diseases For which I have only this one very sacredly to be observed Never to give Children any Physick for prevention The observation of what I have already advised will I suppose do that better than Apothecarie's Drugs and Medicines Have a great care of tampering that way least instead of preventing you draw on Diseases Nor even upon every little Indisposition is Physick to be given or the Physician to be called to Children especially if he be a Busy-man that will presently fill their Windows with Gally-pots and their Stomachs with Drugs It is safer to leave them wholly to Nature than to put them into the hands of one forward to tamper or that thinks Children are to be cured in ordinary Distempers by any thing but Diet or by a Method very little distant from it It seeming suitable both to my Reason and Experience that the tender Constitutions of Children should have as little done to them as is possible and as the absolute necessity of the Case requires A little cold still'd red Popy-water which is the true Surfeit-water with Ease and Abstinence from Flesh often puts an end to several Distempers in the beginning which by too forward Applications might have been made lusty Diseases When such a gentle Treatment will not prevent the growing Mischief but that it will turn into a form'd Disease it will be time to seek the Advice of some sober and discreet Physician In this part I hope I shall find an easy belief and no body can have a pretence to doubt the Advice of one who has spent some time in the Study of Physick when he counsels you not to be too forward in making use of Physick and Physicians § 30. And thus I have done with what concerns the Body and Health which reduces it self to these few and easily observable Rules Plenty of open Air Exercise and Sleep Plain Diet no Wine or Strong Drink and very little or no Physick not too Warm and straight Clothing especially the Head and Feet kept cold and the Feet often used to cold Water and exposed to wet § 31. Due care being had to keep the Body in Strength and Vigor so that it may be able to obey and execute the Orders of the Mind The next and principal Business is to set the Mind right that on all Occasions it may be disposed to do nothing but what may be suitable to the Dignity and Excellency of a rational Creature § 32. If what I have said in the beginning of this Discourse be true as I do not doubt but it is viz. That the difference to be found in the Manners and Abilities of Men is owing more to their Education than to any thing else we have reason to conclude that great care is to be had of the forming Children's Minds and giving them that seasoning early which shall influence their Lives always after For when they do well or ill the Praise or Blame will be laid there and when any thing is done untowardly the common Saying will pass upon them That it is suitable to their Breeding § 33. As the Strength of the Body lies chiefly in being able to endure Hardships so also does that of the Mind And the great Principle and Foundation of all Vertue and Worth is placed in this That a Man is able to deny himself his own Desires cross his own Inclinations and purely follow what Reason directs as best tho' the appetite lean the other way § 34. The great Mistake I have observed in People's breeding their Children has been that this has not been taken care enough of in its due Season That the Mind has not been made obedient to Rules and pliant to Reason when at first it was most tender most easy to be bowed Parents being wisely ordain'd by Nature to love their Children are very apt if Reason watch not that natural Affection very warily are apt I say to let it run into fondness They love their little ones and 't is their Duty But they often with them cherish their Faults too They must
ASILEAE IMPENSIS LVDOV REGIS TYPIS IOANNIS SCHROETERI MDC XXV SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING Education LONDON Printed for A. and J. Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-noster-row 1693. To Edward Clarke of CHIPLEY Esq SIR THese Thoughts concerning Education which now come abroad into the World do of right belong to You being written several Years since for your sake and are no other than what you have already by you in my Letters I have so little varied any thing but only the Order of what was sent you at different Times and on several Occasions that the Reader will easily find in the Familiarity and Fashion of the Style that they were rather the private Conversation of two Friends than a Discourse designed for publick view The Importunity of Friends is the common Apology for Publications Men are afraid to own themselves forward to But you know I can truly say That if some who having heard of these Papers of mine had not pressed to see them and afterwards to have them printed they had lain dormant still in that privacy they were designed for But those whose Judgment I deferr much to telling me That they were persuaded that this rough Draught of mine might be of some use if made more publick touch'd upon what will always he very prevalent with me For I think it every Man 's indispensible Duty to do all the Service he can to his Country And I see not what difference he puts between himself and his Cattel who lives without that Thought This Subject is of so great Concernment and a right way of Education is of so general Advantage that did I find my Abilities answer my Wishes I should not have needed Exhortations or Importunities from others However the Meanness of these Papers and my just Distrust of them shall not keep me by the shame of doing so little from contributing my Mite when there is no more required of me than my throwing it into the publick Receptacle And if there be any more of their Size and Notions who liked them so well that they thought them worth printing I may flatter my self they will not be lost Labour to every body I my self have been consulted of late by so many who profess themselves at a loss how to breed their Children and the early corruption of Youth is now become so general a Complaint that he cannot be thought wholly impertinent who brings the Consideration of this Matter on the stage and offers something if it be but to excite others or afford matter of correction For Errours in Education should be less indulged than any These like Faults in the first Concoction that are never mended in the second or third carry their afterwards incorrigible Taint with them through all the parts and stations of Life I am so far from being conceited of any thing I have here offered that I should not be sorry even for your sake if some one abler and fitter for such a Task would in a just Treatise of Education suited to our English Gentry rectifie the Mistakes I have made in this it being much more desirable to me that young Gentlemen should be put into that which every one ought to be sollicitous about the best way of being formed and instructed than that my Opinion should be received concerning it You will however in the mean time bear me Witness that the Method here propos'd has had no ordinary Effects upon a Gentleman's Son it was not designed for I will not say the good Temper of the Child did not very much contribute to it but this I think you and the Parents are satisfied of that a contrary usage according to the ordinary disciplining of Children would not have mended that Temper nor have brought him to be in love with his Book to take a pleasure in Learning and to desire as he does to be taught more than those about him think fit always to teach him But my Business is not to recommend this Treatise to you whose Opinion of it I know already nor it to the World either by your Opinion or Patronnge The well Educating of their Children is so much the Duty and Concern of Parents and the Welfare and Prosperity of the Nation so much depends on it that I would have every one lay it seriously to Heart and after having well examined and distinguished what Fancy Custom or Reason advises in the Case help to promote that way in the several degrees of Men which is the easiest shortest and likeliest to produce vertuous useful and able Men in their distinct Callings Though that most to be taken Care of is the Gentleman 's Calling for if those of that Rank are by their Education once set right they will quickly bring all the rest into Order I know not whether I have done more than shewn my good Wishes towards it in this short Disourse such as it is the World now has it and if there be any thing in it worth their acceptance they owe their thanks to you for it My Affection to you gave the first rise to it and I am pleased that I can leave to Posterity this Mark of the Friendship has been between us For I know no greater Pleasure in this Life nor a better remembrance to be left behind one than a long continued Friendship with an honest usefull and worthy Man and lover of his Country I am Sir Your most humble and most faithful Servant SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION § 1. A Sound Mind in a sound Body is a short but full description of a Happy State in this World He that has these Two has little more to wish for and he that wants either of them is but little the better for any thing else Mens Happiness or Misery is most part of their own making He whose Mind directs not wisely will never take the right Way and he whose Body is crazy and feeble will never be able to advance in it I confess there are some Mens Constitutions of Body and Mind so vigorous and well framed by Nature that they need not much Assistance from others but by the strength of their natural Genius they are from their Cradles carried towards what is Excellent and by the privilege of their happy Constitutions are able to do Wonders But Examples of these are but few and I think I may say that of all the Men we meet with Nine parts of Ten are what they are Good or Evil useful or not by their Education 'T is that which makes the great difference in Mankind The little and almost insensible Impressions on our tender Infancies have very important and lasting Consequences And there 't is as in the Fountains of some Rivers where a gentle application of the hand turns the flexible Waters into Chanels that make them take quite contrary Courses and by this little direction given them at first in the Source they receive different Tendencies and arrive at last at very remote and distant places § 2. Timagine
Consideration how great the Influence of Company is and how prone we are all especially Children to Imitation I must here take the liberty to mind parents of this one Thing viz. That he that will have his Son have a Respect for him and his Orders must himself have a great Reverence for his Son Maxima debetur pueris reverentia You must do nothing before him which you would not have him imitate If any thing scape you which you would have pass for a Fault in him he will be sure to shelter himself under your Example And how then you will be able to come at him to correct it in the right way I do not easily see And if you will punish him for it he cannot look on it as a Thing which Reason condemns since you practise it but he will be apt to interpret it the Peevishness and arbitrary Imperiousness of a Father which without any Ground for it would deny his Son the Liberty and Pleasures he takes himself Or if you would have it thought it is a Liberty belonging to riper Years and not to a Child you add but a new Temptation since you must always remember that Children affect to be Men earlier than is thought And they love Breeches not for their Cut or ease but because the having them is a Mark of a Step towards Manhood What I say of the Father's Carriage before his Children must extend it self to all those who have any Authority over them or for whom he would have them have any Respect § 70. Thus all the Actions of Childishness and unfashionable Carriage and whatever Time and Age will of it self be sure to reform being exempt from the Discipline of the Rod there will not be so much need of beating Children as is generally made use of To which if we add learning to Read Write Dance Foreign Languages c. as under the same privilege there will be but very rarely any Occasion for Blows or Force in an ingenuous Education The right way to teach them those things is to give them a Liking and Inclination to what you propose to them to be learn'd and that will engage their Industry and Application This I think no hard Matter to do if Children be handled as they should be and the Rewards and Punishments above-mentioned be carefully applied and with them these few Rules observed in the Method of Instructing them § 71. 1. None of the Things they are to learn should ever be made a Burthen to them or imposed on them as a Task Whatever is so proposed presently becomes irksome the Mind takes an Aversion to it though before it were a Thing of Delight or Indifferency Let a Child be but ordered to whip his Top at a certain Time every Day whether he has or has not a Mind to it let this be but required of him as a Duty wherein he must spend so many Hours Morning and Afternoon and see whether he will not soon be weary of any Play at this Rate Is it not so with grown Men What they do chearfully of themselves do they not presently grow sick of and can no more endure as soon as they find it is expected of them as a Duty Children have as much a Mind to shew that they are free that their own good Actions come from themselves that they are absolute and independent as any of the proudest of your grown Men think of them as you please § 72. 2. As a Consequence of this they should seldom be put upon doing even those Things you have got an Inclination in them to but when they have a Mind and Disposition to it He that loves Reading Writing Musick c. finds yet in himself certain Seasons wherein those things have no Relish to him And if at that Time he forces himself to it he only pothers and wearies himself to no purpose So it is with Children This Change of Temper should be carefully observed in them and the favourable Seasons of Aptitude and Inclination be heedfully laid hold of to set them upon any Thing By this Means a great Deal of Time and Tiring would be saved for a Child will learn three times as much when he is in tune as he will with double the Time and Pains when he goes awkardly and unwillingly to it If this were minded as it should Children might be permitted to weary themselves with Play and yet have Time enough to learn what is suited to the Capacity of each Age. And if Things were order'd right Learning any thing they should be taught might be made as much a Recreation to their Play as their Play is to their Learning The Pains are equal on both Sides Nor is it that which troubles them for they love to be busie and the Change and Variety is that which naturally delights them the only Odds is in that which we call Play they act at liberty and employ their Pains whereof you may observe them never sparing freely but what they are to learn they are driven to it called on or compelled This is that that at first Entrance balks and cools them they want their Liberty Get them but to ask their Tutor to teach them as they do often their Play-fellows instead of this Calling upon them to learn and they being satisfied that they act as freely in this as they do in other Things they will go on with as much Pleasure in it and it will not differ from their other Sports and Play By these Ways carefully pursued I guess a Child may be brought to desire to be taught any Thing you have a Mind he should learn The hardest Part I confess is with the first or eldest but when once he is set right it is easie by him to lead the rest whether one will § 73. Though it be past doubt that the fittest Time for Children to learn any Thing is when their Minds are in tune and well disposed to it when neither Flagging of Spirit nor Intentness of Thought upon something else makes them awkard and averse yet two Things are to be taken care of 1. That these Seasons either not being warily observed and laid hold on as often as they return or else not returning as often as they should as always happens in the ordinary Method and Discipline of Education when Blows and Compulsion have raised an Aversion in the Child to the Thing he is to learn the Improvement of the Child be not thereby neglected and so he be let grow into an habitual Idleness and confirmed in this Indisposition 2. That though other Things are ill learned when the Mind is either indisposed or otherwise taken up yet it is a great Matter and worth our Endeavours to teach the Mind to get the Mastery over it self and to be able upon Choice to take it self off from the hot Pursuit of one Thing and set it self upon another with facility and Delight or at any Time to shake off its Sluggishness
out and contrary Habits introduced neglects the proper Season to lay the Foundations of a good and worthy Man To do this I imagine these following things may somewhat conduce § 101. 1. That a Child should never be suffered to have what he craves or so much as speaks for much less if he cries for it What then would you not have them declare their Wants Yes that is very fit and 't is as fit that with all tenderness they should be hearken'd to and supplied at least whilst they are very little But 't is one thing to say I am hungry another to say I would have Roast-Meat Having declared their Wants their natural Wants the pain they feel from Hunger Thirst Cold or any other necessity of Nature 't is the Duty of their Parents and those about them to relieve them But Children must leave it to the choice and ordering of their Parents what they think properest for them and how much and must not be permitted to chuse for themselves and say I would save Wine or White-bread the very naming of it should make them lose it § 102. This is for natural Wants which must be relieved But for all Wants of Fancy and Affectation they should never if once declar'd be hearken'd to or complied with By this means they will be brought to get a mastery over their Inclinations and learn the Art of stifling their Desires as soon as they rise up in them and before they take vent when they are easiest to be subdued which will be of great use to them in the future course of their Lives By this I do not mean that they should not have the things that one perceives would delight them 'T would be Inhumanity and not Prudence to treat them so But they should not have the liberty to carve or crave any thing to themselves they should be exercised in keeping their Desires under till they have got the habit of it and it be grown easie they should accustom themselves to be content in the want of what they wished for And the more they practised Modesty and Temperance in this the more should those about them study to reward them with what is suited and acceptable to them which should be bestowed on them as if it were a natural consequence of their Good-Behaviour and not a Bargain about it But you will lose your Labour and what is more their Love and Reverence too if they can receive from others what you deny them This is to be kept very stanch and carefully to be watched And here the Servants come again in my way § 103. If this be begun betimes and they accustom themselves early to silence their Desires this usefull habit will settle in them and as they come to grow up in Age and Discretion they may be allowed greater liberty when reason comes to speak in them and not Passion For when ever Reason would speak it should be hearken'd to But as they should never be heard when they speak for any thing they would have unless it be first proposed to them so they should always be heard and fairly and kindly answered when they ask after any thing they would know and desire to be inform'd about Curiosity should be as carefully cherished in Children as other Appetites suppressed § 104. 2. Children who live together often strive for mastery whose Will shall carry it over the rest whoever begins the Contest should be sure to be Crossed in it But not only that but they should be taught to have all the Deference Complaisance and Civility one for another imaginable This when they see it procures them respect and that they lose no Superiority by it but on the Contrary they grow into love and esteem with every body they will take more pleasure in than in insolent Domineering for so plainly is the other The Complaints of Children one against another which is usually but the desiring the assistance of another to revenge them should not be favourably received nor hearken'd to It weakens and effeminates their Minds to suffer them to Complain And if they endure sometimes crossing or pain from others without being permitted to think it strange or intolerable it will do them no harm to learn Sufferance and hearden them early But though you give no countenance to the Complaints of the Querulous yet take care to suppress all Insolence and Ill-nature When you observe it your self reprove it before the injured Party But if the Complaint be of something really worthy your notice and prevention another time then reprove the Offender by himself alone out of sight of him that complained and make him go and ask pardon and make reparation Which coming thus as it were from himself will be the more cheerfully performed and more kindly received the Love strengthened between them and a custom of Civility grow familiar amongst your Children § 105. 3. As to the having and possessing of Things teach them to part with what they have easily and freely to their Friends and let them find by experience that the most liberal has always most plenty with Esteem and Commendation to boot and they will quickly learn to practise it This I imagine will make Brothers and Sisters kinder and civiller to one another and consequently to others than twenty Rules about good Manners with which Children are ordinarily perplexed and cumbred Covetousness and the desire of having in our possession and under our Dominion more than we have need of being the root of all Evil should be early and carefully weeded out and the contrary Quality of a readiness to impart to others implanted This should be encouraged by great Commendation and Credit and constantly taking care that he loses nothing by his Liberality Let all the Instances he gives of such freeness be always repaid and with interest and let him sensibly perceive that the Kindness he shows to others is no ill husbandry for himself but that it brings a return of Kindness both from those that receive it and those who look on Make this a Contest among Children who shall out-do one another this way and by this means by a constant practice Children having made it easie to themselves to part with what they have good Nature may be setled in them into an Habit and they may take pleasure and pique themselves in being kind liberal and civil to others § 106. Crying is a fault that should not be tolerated in Children not only for the unpleasant and unbecoming Noise it fills the House with but for more considerable Reasons in reference to the Children themselves which is to be our aim in Education Their Crying is of two sorts either stubborn and domineering or querulous and whining 1. Their crying is very often a contention for Mastery and an open declaration of their Insolence or Obstinacy when they have not the power to obtain their Desire they will by their Clamour and Sobbing maintain their Title and Right
to it This is an open justifying themselves and a sort of Remonstrance of the unjustness of the Oppression which denies them what they have a mind to § 107. 2. Sometimes their crying is the effect of Pain or true Sorrow and a bemoaning themselves under it These Two if carefully observed may by the Mien Looks and Actions and particularly by the Tone of their Crying be easily distinguished but neither of them must be suffer'd much less incourag'd 1. The obstinate or stomachful crying should by no means be permitted because it is but another way of flattering their Desires and incouraging those Passions which 't is our main Business to subdue And if it be as often it is upon the receiving any Correction it quite defeats all the good Effects of it For a Punishment which leaves them in this declar'd Opposition only serves to make them worse The Restraints and Punishments laid on Children are all misapplied and lost as far as they do not prevail over their Wills teach them to submit their Passions and make their Minds supple and pliant to what their Parents Reason advises them now and so prepare them to obey what their own Reasons shall advise hereafter But if in any thing wherein they are crossed they may be suffer'd to go away crying they confirm themselves in their Desires and cherish the ill Humour with a Declaration of their Right and a Resolution to satisfy their Inclination the first Opportunity This therefore is another Reason why you should seldom Chastise your Children for whenever you come to that extremity 't is not enough to whipp or Beat them you must do it till you find you have subdued their Minds till with Submission and Patience they yield to the Correction which you shall best discover by their crying and their ceasing from it upon your bidding Without this the beating of Children is but a passionate Tyranny over them and it is mere Cruelty and not Correction to put their Bodies in Pain without doing their Minds any good As this gives us a Reason why Children should seldom be corrected so it also prevents their being so For if when-ever they are chastised it were done thus without Passion soberly and yet effectually too laying on the Blows and smart not all at once but slowly with Reasoning between and with Observation how it wrought stopping when it had made them pliant penitent and yielding they would seldom need the like Punishment again being made Carefull to avoid the Fault that deserved it Besides by this means as the Punishment would not be lost for being too little and not effectual so it would be kept from being too much if we gave off as soon as we perceived that it reach'd the Mind and that was better'd For since the Chiding or Beating of Children should be always the least that possible may be that which is laid on in the heat of Anger seldom observes that measure but is commonly more than it should be though it prove less than enough § 108. 2. Many Children are apt to Cry upon any little Pain they suffer and the least Harm that befals them puts them into Complaints and Bawling This few Children avoid for it being the first and natural Way to declare their Sufferings or Wants before they can speak the Compassion that is thought due to that tender Age foolishly incourages and continues it in them long after they can speak 'T is the Duty I confess of those about Children to compassionate them when-ever they suffer any hurt but not to shew it in pitying them Help and ease them the best you can but by no means bemoan them This softens their Minds and makes the little harms that happen to them sink deep into that part which alone feels and make larger Wounds there than otherwise they would They should be harden'd against all Sufferings especially of the Body and have a tenderness only of Shame and for Reputation The many Inconveniencies this Life is exposed to require we should not be too sensible of every little hurt What our Minds yield not to makes but a slight impression and does us but very little harm 'T is the suffering of our Spirits that gives and continues the Pain This brawniness and insensibility of Mind is the best Armour we can have against the common Evils and Accidents of Life and being a Temper that is to be got by Exercise and Custom more than any other way the practice of it should be begun betimes and happy is he that is taught it early That effeminacy of Spirit which is to be prevented or cured as nothing that I know so much increases in Children as Crying so nothing on the other side so much checks and restrains as their being hindred from that sort of Complaining In the little harms they suffer from Knocks and Falls they should not be pitied for falling but bid do so again which is a better way to cure their falling than either chiding or bemoaning them But let the hurts they receive be what they will stop their Crying and that will give them more quiet and ease at present and harden them for the future § 109. The former sort of Crying requires severity to silence it and where a Look or a positive Command will not do it Blows must For it proceeding from Pride Obstinacy and Wilfullness the Will where the Fault lies must be bent and made to comply by a Rigour sufficient to subdue it But this latter being ordinarily from softness of Mind a quite contrary Cause ought to be treated with a gentler Hand Persuasion or diverting the Thoughts another way or laughing at their whining may perhaps be at first the proper Method But for this the circumstances of the thing and the particular Temper of the Child must be considered no certain unvariable Rules can be given about it but it must be left to the Prudence of the Parents or Tutor But this I think I may say in general that there should be a constant discountenancing of this sort of Crying also and that the Father by his Looks Words and Authority should always stop it mixing a greater Degree of roughness in his Looks or Words proportionably as the Child is of a greater Age or a sturdier Temper But always let it be enough to Master the Disorder § 110. One thing I have frequently observed in Children that when they have got possession of any poor Creature they are apt to use it ill They often torment and treat very roughly young Birds Butterflies and such other poor Animals which fall into their Hands and that with a seeming kind of Pleasure This I think should be watched in them and if they incline to any such Cruelty they should be taught the contrary Usage For the custom of tormenting and killing of Beasts will by degrees harden their Minds even towards Men and they who delight in the suffering and destruction of inferiour Creatures will not be apt to be very
only to be the more foolish or worse Men. I say this that when you consider of the Breeding of your Son and are looking out for a School-Master or a Tutor you would not have as is usual Latin and Logick only in your Thoughts Learning must be had but in the second place as subservient only to greater Qualities Seek out some-body that may know how discreetly to frame his Manners Place him in Hands where you may as much as possible secure his Innocence cherish and nurse up the Good and gently correct and weed out any Bad Inclinations and settle in him good Habits This is the main Point and this being provided for Learning may be had into the Bargain and that as I think at a very easie rate by Methods that may be thought on § 141. When he can talk 't is time he should begin to learn to read But as to this give me leave here to inculcate again what is very apt to be forgotten viz. That a great Caâ—e is to be taken that it be never made as a Business to him nor he look on it as a Task We naturally as I said even from our Cradles love Liberty and have therefore an aversion to many Things for no other Reason but because they are enjoyn'd us I have always had a Fancy that Learning might be made a Play and Recreation to Children and that they might be brought to desire to be taught if it were propos'd to them as a thing of Honour Credit Delight and Recreation or as a Reward for doing something else and if they were never chid or corrected for the neglect of it That which confirms me in this Opinion is that amongst the Portugueses 't is so much a Fafhion and Emulation amongst their Children to learn to Read and Write that they cannot hinder them from it They will learn it one from another and are as intent on it as if it were forbidden them I remember that being at a Friend's House whose younger Son a Child in Coats was not easily brought to his Book being taught to Read at home by his Mother I advised to try another way then requiring it of him as his Duty we therefore in a Discourse on purpose amongst our selves in his hearing but without taking any notice of him declared That it was the Privilege and Advantage of Heirs and Elder Brothers to be Scholars that this made them fine Gentlemen and beloved by every body And that for Younger Brothers 't was a Favour to admit them to Breeding to be taught to Read and Write was more than came to their share they might be ignorant Bumpkins and Clowns if they pleased This so wrought upon the Child that afterwards he desired to be taught would come himself to his Mother to learn and would not let his Maid be quiet till she heard him his Lesson I doubt not but some way like this might be taken with other Children and when their Tempers are found some Thoughts be instilled into them that might set them upon desiring of Learning themselves and make them seek it as another sort of Play or Recreation But then as I said before it must never be imposed as a Task nor made a trouble to them There may be Dice and Play-things with the Letters on them to teach Children the Alphabet by playing and twenty other ways may be found suitable to their particular Tempers to make this kind of Learning a Sport to them § 142. Thus Children may be cozen'd into a Knowledge of the Letters be taught to read without perceiving it to be any thing but a Sport and play themselves into that others are whipp'd for Children should not have any thing like Work or serious laid on them neither their Minds nor Bodies will bear it It injures their Healths and their being forced and tied down to their Books in an Age at enmity with all such restraint has I doubt not been the reason why a great many have hated Books and Learning all their Lives after 'T is like a Surfeit that leaves an Aversion behind not to be removed § 143. I have therefore thought that if Play-things were fitted to this purpose as they are usually to none Contrivances might be made to teach Children to Read whilst they thought they were only Playing For example What if an Ivory-Ball were made like that of the Royal-Oak Lottery with Thirty two sides or one rather of Twenty four or Twenty five sides and upon several of those sides pasted on an A upon several others B on others C and on others D. I would have you begin with but these four Letters or perhaps only two at first and when he is perfect in them then add another and so on till each side having one letter there be on it the whole Alphabet This I would have others play with before him it being as good a sort of Play to lay a Stake who shall first throw an A or B as who upon Dice shall throw Six or Seven This being a play amongst you tempt him not to it least you make it Business for I would not have him understand 't is any thing but a play of older People and I doubt not but he will take to it of himself And that he may have the more reason to think it is a play that he is sometimes in favour admitted to when the Play is done the Ball shall be laid up safe out of his reach that so it may not by his having it in his keeping at any time grow stale to him To keep up his eagerness to it let him think it a Game belonging to those above him And when by this means he knows the Letters by changing them into Syllables he may learn to Read without knowing how he did so and never have any chiding or trouble about it nor fall out with Books because of the hard usage and vexation they have caused him Children if you observe them take abundance of pains to learn several Games which if they should be enjoined them they would abhorr as a Task and Business I know a Person of great Quality more yet to be honoured for his Learning and Vertue than for his Rank and high Place who by pasting on the six Vowels for in our language Y is one on the six sides of a Die and the remaining eighteen Consonants on the sides of three other Dice has made this a play for his Children that he shall win who at one cast throws most Words on these four Dice whereby his eldest Son yet in Coats has play'd himself into Spelling with great eagerness and without once having been child for it or forced to it § 144. I have seen little Girls exercise whole Hours together and take abundance of pains to be expert at Dibstones as they call it Whilst I have been looking on I have thought it wanted only some good Contrivance to make them employ all that Industry about something that might be more useful
not be crossed forsooth they must be permitted to have their Wills in all things and they being in their Infancies not capable of great Vices their Parents think they may safely enough indulge their little irregularities and make themselves Sport with that pretty perverseness which they think well enough becomes that innocent Age. But to a fond Parent that would not have his Child corrected for a perverse Trick but excused it saying It was a small matter Solon very well replied Ay but Custom is a great one § 35. The Fondling must be taught to strike and call Names must have what he Cries for and do what he pleases Thus Parents by humoring and cockering them when little corrupt the Principles of Nature in their Children and wonder afterwards to tast the bitter Waters when they themselves have poisoned the Fountain For when their Children are grown up and these ill Habits with them when they are now too big to be dandled and their Parents can no longer make use of them as Play-things then they complain that the Brats are untoward and perverse then they are offended to see them wilfull and are troubled with those ill Humours which they themselves inspired and cherished in them And then perhaps too late would be glad to get out those Weeds which their own hands have planted and which now have taken too deep root to be easily extirpated For he that has been used to have his Will in every thing as long as he was in Coats why would we think it strange that he should desire it and contend for it still when he is in Breeches Indeed as he grows more towards a Man Age shews his Faults the more so that there be few Parents then so blind as not to see them few so insensible as not to feel the ill Effects of their own indulgence He had the Will of his Maid before he could Speak or Go he had the Mastery of his Parents ever since he could Prattle and why now he is grown up is Stronger and Wiser than he was then why now of a sudden must he be restrained and Curbed Why must he at seven fourteen or twenty Years old lose the Privilege which the parent's indulgence till then so largely allowed him Try it in a Dog or an Horse or any other Creature and see whether the ill and resty Tricks they have learn'd when young are easily to be mended when they are knit and yet none of those Creatures are half so wilful and proud or half so desirous to be Masters of themselves and others as Man § 36. We are generally wise enough to begin with them when they are very young and Discipline betimes those other Creatures we would make usefull to us They are only our own Off-spring that we neglect in this Point and having made them ill Children we foolishly expect they should be good Men. For if the Child must have Grapes or Sugar-plumbs when he has a Mind to them rather than make the poor Baby cry or be out of Humour why when he is grown up must he not be satisfied too if his Desires carry him to Wine or Women They are Objects as suitable to the longing of one of more Years as what he cried for when little was to the inclinations of a Child The having Desires suitable to the Apprehensions and Relish of those several Ages is not the Fault but the not having them subject to the Rules and Restraints of Reason The Difference lies not in the having or not having Appetites but in the Power to govern and deny our selves in them And he that is not used to submit his Will to the Reason of others when he is young will scarce hearken or submit to his own Reason when he is of an Age to make use of it And what a kind of a Man such an one is like to prove is easie to fore-see § 37. It seems plain to me that the Principle of all Vertue and Excellency lies in a power of denying our selves the satisfaction of our own Desires where Reason does not authorize them This Power is to be got and improved by Custom made easy and familiar by an early Practice If therefore I might be heard I would advise that contrary to the ordinary way Children should be used to submit their Desires and go without their Longings even from their very Cradles The first thing they should learn to know should be that they were not to have any thing because it pleased them but because it was thought fit for them If things suitable to their Wants were supplied to them so that they were never suffered to have what they once cried for they would learn to be content without it would never with Bawling and Peevishness contend for Mastery nor be half so uneasy to themselves and others as they are because from the first beginning they are not thus handled If they were never suffered to obtain their desire by the Impatience they expressed for it they would no more cry for other Things than they do for the Moon § 38. I say not this as if Children were not to be indulged in any Thing or that I expected they should in Hanging-Sleeves have the Reason and Conduct of Councellors I consider them as Children that must be tenderly used that must play and have Play-things That which I mean is That whenever they crave what was not fit for them to have or do they should not be permitted it because they were little and desired it Nay Whatever they were importunate for they should be sure for that very Reason to be denied I have seen Children at a Table who whatever was there never asked for any thing but contentedly took what was given them And at another Place I have seen others cry for every Thing they saw must be served out of every Dish and that first too What made this vast Difference but this That one was accustomed to have what they called or cried for the other to go without it The younger they are the less I think are their unruly and disorderly Appetites to be complied with and the less Reason they have of their own the more are they to be under the Absolute Power and Restraint of those in whose Hands they are From which I confess it will follow That none but discreet People should be about them If the World commonly does otherwise I cannot help that I am saying what I think should be which if it were already in Fashion I should not need to trouble the World with a Discourse on this Subject But yet I doubt not but when it is considered there will be Others of Opinion with me That the sooner this Way is begun with Children the easier it will be for them and their Governors too And that this ought to be observed as an inviolable Maxim That whatever once is denied them they are certainly not to obtain by Crying or Importunity unless one has a Mind to teach