SELECT PIECES

IN PROSE.

ON THE COMPARATIVE MERITS

OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC EDUCATION.

1801.

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THAT Education is necessary to improvement, and that youth is the season best fitted for it, are truths too evident to need demonstration.

I am aware that, in this "Age of Reason," some are willing to deny the latter; but being not yet so far advanced in the theory of modern argumentation, as to think the caprices of the weak, or the sophistry of the wicked, sufficient to overthrow a system established for ages, and sanctioned by the approbation of the best, and the practice of all, I assume these truths as axioms.

It would be happy if the same unanimity which prevails as to the general principle, could be discerned in the application of it. But here opinion and prejudice interpose; and on no subject, perhaps, are the plans proposed

more widely dissentient.

Nor can this be matter of asto

nishment. The mind of every man is, in some degree, warped by constitution, habit, or example; in addition to which, we have reason from the fairest analogy to believe, that the original constitution of our minds is not less various than the formation of our faces, which are so intimately allied, yet so artfully distinguished, as alone sufficiently to prove the Omnipotence of their Maker. Our minds then being thus dissimilar, we shall necessarily differ most in those subjects, on which we think most; and Education must always be a prominent object of contemplation, as in its success or failure nothing less than the welfare of empires is involved.

The ancients thought, and justly, that the tuition of youth was a matter of public moment, and the civil power was called in, to regulate, direct, and inforce it: but whatever considerations might impress on their minds the importance of the subject, must surely in these days act with doubled effect; for, in proportion as Revelation is greater than Philosophy, and things eternal than things temporal, so much should the Education of a Christian be raised above that of an Heathen.

I am far from wishing to decry personal accomplishments; superiority of every nature is desirable; but all more minute excellencies must be omitted, because their comparative importance is very disproportionate, and the subject is at best too wide. The acquisition of Virtue and Knowledge are the two great objects in Education; not that even these can be considered as competitors for eminence. So much superior are the qualities of the Heart to those of the Understanding, that could unsullied Innocence be purchased by the sacrifice of every other consi

deration, the price would be cheap, and the purchase inestimable; but such was not the will of our great Creator. It is therefore our business, while we cultivate every moral virtue, to promote at the same time every intellectual attainment; and those who will be content to pursue the latter, in subservience to the former, will be gratified by discovering, that Science is to Religion what Pope describes Criticism once to have been to Poetry:

"Then Criticism the Muse's handmaid prov'd

"To deck her charms and make her more belov'd."

When I thus allow every superiority to moral excellence, some perhaps will think the contest ended; but I cannot think myself maintaining a paradox, when I doubt at least whether a private Education be most congenial to Virtue.

At first view, I confess, Innocence and Retirement seem to be twin sisters, and the imagination expands with rapture in surveying her fair creations: where Youth is trained up in Simplicity and Piety; where the Heart beats with genuine emotions; where no competition alarms, no temptations allure, and no examples vitiate. Alas! these Elysian Regions only want existence to realize perfection; but that is a requisite, which experience informs us they shall never have: for, even beneath the shade of privacy, can the Serpent of Sin distil his poison; and though the world with all its luxuries and all its corruptions be excluded, yet human nature will remain, nor will all the sanctity of obscurity preserve its shades from violation. The beams of Ambition perhaps may be excluded, the splendour of Greatness be eclipsed, or the

charm of Competition be dissolved; but the less exalted passions may still riot without control; Hatred, and Revenge, Envy, and Discontent, Fraud, Lust, and Duplicity, will find an ample field even amid the gloom of Solitude. These are enemies whom no art can elude; who laugh at the fear of extirpation, and set prevention at defiance. Planted at our birth, they have fixed their roots even in the recesses of the Heart; and, when they are eradicated, it must cease to beat. Whatever labour may be required to mature the produce of Virtue, we can all bear melancholy testimony to the prolific vegetation of Vice; the Passions are self sown, self reared, self ripened; and stand little in need of examples to instruct, or opportunities to encourage them. Happy they, who in solitude shall be able to check their growth by the restrictive aids of Religion; but I fear even the fondest Enthusiast must confess with the inimitable Johnson, that "The life of a solitary man is certainly wretched, but not certainly devout."

Nor are the dangers of a private education confined to the corruptions of Nature. No one is, in fact, totally secluded. Even those who are most rigidly confined, must be under the eye of a Parent, a Guardian, or a Tutor; and, if the principles of these be bad, how desperate is the situation of the Pupil! The very possibility of such an event, where even the hope of safety seems precluded, will be a considerable weight to throw into the balance against all the perils of public tuition. Yet could we, indeed, be always private, could the seclusion of youth be protracted to our old age, and a whole life glide away, "The world forgetting by the world forgot," I should not hesitate to prefer a private education with all its disadvantages, to the hazards of a public school. But alas!