SIR, T HESE Thoughts concerning Education, which now come abroad into the world, do of right belong to you, being written feveral years fince for your fake, and are no other than what you have already by you in my letters. I have fo little varied any thing, but only the order of what was fent you at different times, and on feveral occafions, that the reader will eafily find, in the familiarity and fashion of the ftyle, that they were rather the private converfation of two friends, than a difcourfe defigned for public view. THE importunity of friends is the common apology for publications men are afraid to own themfelves forward to. But you know I can truly fay, that if fome, who having heard of these papers of mine, had not preffed to see them, and afterwards to have them printed, they had lain dormant ftill in that privacy they were defigned for. But those whofe judgment I defer much to, telling me, that they were perfuaded, that this rough draught of mine might be of fome ufe, if made more publick, touched upon what will always be very prevalent with me. For I think it every man's indifpenfible duty, to do all the fervice he can to his country: And I fee not what difference he puts between himself and his cattle, who lives without that thought. This fubject is of fo great concernment, and a right way of education is of fo general advantage, that did I find my abilities anfwer my wishes, I fhould not have needed exhortations or importunities from others. However, the meanness of papers, and my juft diftruft of them, fhall not keep me, by the fhame of doing fo little, from contributing my mite, when there is no more required of me, than my throwing it into the public receptacle. And if there be any more of their fize and notions, who liked them fo well, that they thought them worth printing, I may flatter myself, they will not be loft labour to every body.. thefe I MYSELF have been confulted of late by fo many, who profefs themfelves at a loss how to breed their children; and the early corruption of youth is now become fo general a complaint, that he cannot be thought wholly impertinent, who brings the confideration of this matter on the ftage, and offers fomething, if it be but to excite others, or afford matter of correction. For errors in education fhould be lefs indulged than any: Thefe, like faults in the firft concoction, that are never mended in the second or third, carry their afterwards-incorrigible taint with them, through all the parts and ftations of life. FAM 3 I AM fo far from being conceited of any thing I have here offered, that I fhould not be forry, even for your fake, if fome one abler and fitter for such a tafk, would in a just treatise of education, fuited to our English gentry, rectify the mistakes I have made in this: it being much more defirable to me, that young gentlemen fhould be put into (that which every one ought to be folicitous about) the best way of being formed and instructed, than that my opinion fhould be received concerning it. You will, however, in the mean time bear me witness, that the method here propofed has had no ordinary effects upon a gentleman's fon, it was not defigned for. I will not fay the good temper of the child did not very much contribute to it, but this I think, you and the parents are fatisfied of, that a contrary ufage, 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 defire, 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 treatife to you, whofe opinion of it I know already; nor it to the world, either by your opinion or patronage. The well educating of their children is fo much the duty and concern of parents, and the welfare and profperity of the nation fo much depends on it, that I would have every one lay it seriously to heart; and after having well examined and diftinguished what fancy, custom, or reafon advises in the cafe, fet his helping hand to promote every where that way of training up youth, with regard to their feveral conditions, which is the eafieft, fhorteft, and likelieft to produce virtuous, useful, and able men in their diftinct callings: Though that moft to be taken care of, is the gentleman's calling. For if those of that rank are by their education once fet right, they will quickly bring all the reft into order. I KNOW not whether I have done more than fhewn my good wishes towards it in this fhort difcourfe; fuch 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 firft rife to it, and L am pleased, that I can leave to pofterity 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, useful, and worthy man, and lover of his country. am, 7. March, SIR, your moft humble and most faithful fervant, I JOHN LOCKE. SOME THOUGHT S CONCERNING EDUCATION. $1. I. A SOUND mind in a found body, is a short, but full description of a happy ftate in this world; he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be but little the better for any thing elfe. Men's happinefs, or misery, is moft part of their own making. He whofe mind directs not wifely, will never take the right way; and he whofe body is crazy and feeble, will never be able to advance in it. I confefs, there are fome men's conftitutions of body and mind fo vigorous, and well framed by nature, that they need not much affiftance from others; but, by the ftrength 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 this kind are but few; and I think I may fay, that, of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, ufeful or not, by their education. It is that which makes the great difference in mankind. The little, or almoft infenfible, impreffions on our tender infancies, have very important and lasting confequences and there it is; as in the fountains of fome rivers, where a gentle application of the hand turns the flexible waters into channels, that make them take quite contrary courfes; and by this little direction, given them at first, in the fource, they receive different tendencies, and arrive at laft at very remote and diftant places. main $2. I. IMAGINE the minds of children, as eafily turned, this or that way, as water itself; and though this be the principal part, and our care should be about the infide, yet the clay cottage is not to be neglected. I fhall therefore begin with the cafe, and confider first the health of the body, as that which perhaps you may rather expect, from that fludy I have been thought more peculiarly to have applied myself to; Health. VOL. IV. and Health. and that also, which will be fooneft difpatched, as lying, if I guess not amifs, in a very little compafs. § 3. How neceffary health is to our bufinefs and happiness; and how requifite a ftrong conftitution, able to endure hardships and fatigue, is, to one that will make any figure in the world; is too obvious to need any proof. § 4. THE Confideration I shall here have, of health, fhall be, not what a phyfician ought to do, with a fick or crazy child; but what the parents, without the help of phyfick, fhould do for the preservation and improvement of an healthy, or, at leaft, not fickly conftitution, in their children: and this perhaps might be all dispatched in this one short rule, viz. That gentlemen fhould ufe their children, as the honeft farmers and fubftantial yeomen do theirs. But because the mothers, poffibly, may think this a little too hard, and the fathers, too fhort, I fhall ex'plain myself more particularly; only laying down this, as a general and certain obfervation for the women to confider, viz. that most children's Tenderness. conftitutions are either spoiled, or at least harmed, by cockering and tendernefs. Warmth. § 5. THE first thing to be taken care of, is, that children be not too warmly clad or covered, winter or fummer. The face, when we are born, is no less tender than any other part of the body: it is ufe alone hardens it, and makes it more able to endure the cold. And therefore the Scythian philofopher gave a very fignificant answer to the Athenian, who wondered how he could go naked in froft and fnow: "How," faid the Scythian, 66 can you endure your face exposed to the fharp winter air?" My face is used to it," faid the Athenian. "Think me all face," replied the Scythian. Our bodies will endure any thing, that from the beginning they are accustomed to. * Nouveau voyage du Levant, 150. 175. AN An eminent inftance of this, though in the contrary excefs of heat, being to our prefent purpose, to fhew what ufe can do, I fhall fet down in the author's words, as I meet with it in a late ingenious voyage: *The heats, fays he, are more violent in Malta, than in any part of Europe; they exceed those of Rome itself, and are perfectly ftifling; and fo much the more, because there are feldom any cooling breezes here. This • makes the common people as black as gypfies: but yet the peasants defy the fun they work on, in the hottest part of the day, without intermiffion, or fheltering themselves from his fcorching rays. This has con vinced me that nature can bring itself to many things,.which feem impoffible, provided we accuftom ourselves from our infancy. The Maltefes do fo, who harden the bodies of their children, and reconcile them to the heat, by making them go ftark naked, without fhirt, drawers, or any thing on their head, from their cradles, till they are ten years • old.' GIVE me leave, therefore, to advise you, not to fence too carefully against the cold of this our climate: there are thofe in England, who wear |