LETTER XCII.

Mrs. B― to Mr. B

MY DEAREST MR. B—, -I will continue my subject, although I have not had an opportunity to know whether you approve of my notions or not, by reason of the excursions you have been pleased to allow me to make in your beloved company to the seaports of this kingdom, and to the more noted inland towns of Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and Dorsetshire, which have given me infinite delight and pleasure, and enlarged my notions of the wealth and power of the kingdom in which God's goodness has given you so considerable a stake.

My next topic will be upon a home education, which Mr. Locke prefers, for several weighty reasons, to a school one, provided such a tutor can be procured, as he makes next to an impossibility to procure. The gentleman has set forth the inconveniences of both, and was himself so discouraged on a review of them, that he was ready, as he says, to throw up his pen. My chief cares, dear sir, on this head, are three: First, The difficulty, which, as I said, Mr. Locke makes almost insuperable, to find a qualified tutor. Secondly, The necessity there is, according to Mr. Locke, of keeping the youth out of the company of the meaner servants, who may set him bad examples. And, thirdly, Those still greater difficulties, which will arise from the examples of his parents, if they are not very discreet and circumspect.

As to the qualifications of the tutor, Mr. Locke supposes that he is to be so learned, so discreet, so wise, in short, so perfect a man, that I doubt, and so does Mr. Locke, such a one is hardly possible to be met with for this humble and slavish employment. I presume, sir, to call it so, because of the too little regard that is generally paid to these useful men in the families of the great, where they are frequently

put upon a foot with the uppermost servants, and the rather, if they happen to be men of modesty.

'I would,' says this gentleman, 'from children's first beginning to talk, have some discreet, sober, nay, wise person about them, whose care it should be to fashion 'them right, and to keep them from all ill; especially the 'infection of bad company. I think,' continues he, 'this province requires great sobriety, temperance, tenderness, 'diligence, and discretion; qualities hardly to be found ' united in persons that are to be had for ordinary salaries, ' nor easily to be found anywhere.'

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If this, sir, be the case, does not this excellent author recommend a scheme that is rendered in a manner impracticable, from this difficulty?

As to these qualities being more rarely to be met with in persons that are to be had for ordinary salaries, I cannot help being of opinion (although, with Mr. Locke, I think no expense should be spared, if that would do), that there is as good a chance for finding a proper person among the needy scholars (if not of a low and sordid turn of mind), as among the more affluent: because the narrow circumstances of the former (which probably became a spur to his own. improvement) will, it is likely, at first setting out in the world make him be glad to embrace an offer of this kind in a family which has interest enough to prefer him, and will quicken his diligence to make him deserve preferment. And if such a one wanted anything of that requisite politeness, which some would naturally expect from scholars of better fortune, might not that be supplied to the youth by the conversation of parents, relations, and visitors, in conjunction with those other helps which young men of family and large expectations constantly have, and which few learned tutors can give him.

I say not this, dear sir, to countenance the wretched niggardliness (which this gentleman justly censures) of those who grudge a handsome consideration to so necessary and painful a labour as that of a tutor, which, where a deserving man can be met with, cannot be too genteelly

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rewarded, nor himself too respectfully treated. I only take the liberty to deliver my opinion, that a low condition is as likely as any other, with a mind not ungenerous, as I said, to produce a man who has these good qualities, as well for the reasons I have hinted at, as for others which might be mentioned.

But Mr. Locke proceeds with his difficulties in this particular: To form a young gentleman as he should 'be,' says he, 'tis fit his governor should be well-bred, ' understand the ways of carriage, and measures of civility, in all the variety of persons, times, and places; ' and keep his pupil, as far as his age requires, constantly 'to the observation of them. This is an art,' continues he, not to be learnt or taught by books. Nothing can 'give it but good company and observation joined to'gether.'

And in another place, Besides being well-bred, the tutor 'should know the world well; the ways, the humours, the 'follies, the cheats, the faults of the age he has fallen into,

and particularly of the country he lives in. These he 'should be able to show to his pupil, as he finds him capable; teach him skill in men and their manners; pull off the mask, which their several callings and pretences cover them with; and make his pupil discern what 'lies at the bottom, under such appearances, that he may not, as unexperienced young men are apt to do, if they are unwarned, take one thing for another, judge by the 'outsides, and give himself up to show, and the insinuation of a fair carriage, or an obliging application: teach him to guess at, and beware of, the designs of men he hath to 'do with, neither with too much suspicion, nor too much 'confidence.'

This, dear sir, is excellently said: 'tis noble theory; and if the tutor be a man void of resentment and caprice, and will not be governed by partial considerations in his own judgment of persons and things, all will be well. But if otherwise, may he not take advantage of the confidence placed in him, to the injury of some worthy person, and by

degrees monopolise the young gentleman to himself, and govern his passions as absolutely, as I have heard some first ministers have done those of their prince, equally to his own personal disreputation, and to the disadvantage of his people? But,

All this, and much more, according to Mr. Locke, is the duty of a tutor; and on the finding out such a one depends his scheme of a home education. No wonder, then, that he himself says, ' When I consider the scruples and cautions 'I here lay in your way, methinks it looks as if I advised you to something, which I would have offered at, but in ' effect not done,' &c. Permit me, dear sir, in this place, to express my fear that it is hardly possible for any one, of talents inferior to those of Mr. Locke himself, to come up to the rules he has laid down upon this subject; and 'tis to be questioned whether even he, with all that vast stock of natural reason, and solid sense, for which, as you tell me, sir, he was so famous, had attained to these perfections at his first setting out into life.

Now, therefore, dear sir, you can't imagine how these difficulties perplex me, as to my knowing how to judge which is best, a home or a school education. For hear what this excellent author justly observes on the latter, among other things no less to the purpose: 'I am sure 'he who is able to be at the charge of a tutor at home, may there give his son a more genteel carriage, more 'manly thoughts, and a sense of what is worthy and becoming, with a greater proficiency in learning into the bargain, and ripen him up sooner into a man, than any at 'school can do. Not that I blame the schoolmaster, in this, says he, or think it to be laid to his charge. The 'difference is great between two or three pupils in the same house, and three or four score boys lodged up and 'down: for let the master's industry and skill be ever so great, it is impossible he should have fifty or one hundred 'scholars under his eye any longer than they are in the 'school together.' But then, sir, if there be such a difficulty, as Mr. Locke says, to meet with a proper tutor for

the home education which he thus prefers, what a perplexing thing is this!

But, still, according to this gentleman, another difficulty attends a home education, and that is, what I hinted at before in my second article: the necessity of keeping the youth out of the company of the meaner servants, who may set him bad examples. For thus he says: Here is 'another great inconvenience, which children receive from the ill examples which they meet with from the meaner servants. They are wholly, if possible, to be kept from such conversation: for the contagion of these ill precedents, both in civility and virtue, horribly infects chil'dren as often as they come within the reach of it. They frequently learn from unbred or debauched servants such language, untowardly tricks and vices, as otherwise they 'would be ignorant of all their lives. 'Tis a hard matter wholly to prevent this mischief, continues he; you will have very good luck if you never have a clownish or vicious servant, and if from them your children never get any 'infection.'

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Then, sir, my third point (which I mentioned in the beginning of this letter) makes a still stronger objection, as it may happen, against a home education; to wit, the example of the parents themselves, if they be not very circumspect and discreet.

All these difficulties being put together, let me, dear sir, humbly propose it, as a matter for your consideration and determination, Whether there be not a middle way to be found out in a school-education that may remedy some of these inconveniences? For suppose you cannot get a tutor so qualified as Mr. Locke thinks he ought to be, for your Billy, as he grows up. Suppose there is danger from your meaner servants; and suppose we his parents should not be able to lay ourselves under the requisite restraints, in order to form his mind by our own examples; which, I hope, by God's grace, however, will not be the case-Cannot some master be found out, who shall be so well rewarded for his care of a few young gentle