The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 3,418 pages of information about The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 3,418 pages of information about The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

  Exigite ut mores teneros ceu pollice ducat,
  Ut si quis cera vultum facit.

  Juv.

I shall give the following Letter no other Recommendation, than by telling my Readers that it comes from the same Hand with that of last Thursday.

  Sir,

I send you, according to my Promise, some farther Thoughts on the Education of Youth, in which I intend to discuss that famous Question, Whether the Education at a publick School, or under a private Tutor, is to be preferred?
As some of the greatest Men in most Ages have been of very different Opinions in this Matter, I shall give a short Account of what I think may be best urged on both sides, and afterwards leave every Person to determine for himself.
It is certain from Suetonius, that the Romans thought the Education of their Children a business properly belonging to the Parents themselves; and Plutarch, in the Life of Marcus Cato, tells us, that as soon as his Son was capable of Learning, Cato would suffer no Body to Teach him but himself, tho he had a Servant named Chilo, who was an excellent Grammarian, and who taught a great many other Youths.

  On the contrary, the Greeks seemed more inclined to Publick Schools
  and Seminaries.

   A private Education promises in the first place Virtue and
  Good-Breeding; a publick School Manly Assurance, and an early
  Knowledge in the Ways of the World.

   Mr. Locke in his celebrated Treatise of Education [1], confesses
  that there are Inconveniencies to be feared on both sides; If, says
  he, I keep my Son at Home, he is in danger of becoming my young
  Master; If I send him Abroad, it is scarce possible to keep him from
  the reigning Contagion of Rudeness and Vice.  He will perhaps be more
  Innocent at Home, but more ignorant of the World, and more sheepish
  when he comes Abroad.  However, as this learned Author asserts, That
  Virtue is much more difficult to be attained than Knowledge of the
  World; and that Vice is a more stubborn, as well as a more dangerous
  Fault than Sheepishness, he is altogether for a private Education; and
  the more so, because he does not see why a Youth, with right
  Management, might not attain the same Assurance in his Fathers House,
  as at a publick School.  To this end he advises Parents to accustom
  their Sons to whatever strange Faces come to the House; to take them
  with them when they Visit their Neighbours, and to engage them in
  Conversation with Men of Parts and Breeding.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.