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.