am humbly of opinion, the reverse of what ought to be done. And more so if this servant has any direction of the child's education; and still much more so, if it be his tutor, notwithstanding Mr. Locke says, 'There is no doubt, if 'there be a tutor, that it should be done by him.'

For, dear sir, is there no doubt that the tutor should lay himself open to the aversion of the child, whose manners he is to form? Is it not the best method a tutor can take, in order to enforce the lessons he would inculcate, to endeavour to attract the love and attention of his pupil by the most winning, mild, and inviting ways that he can possibly think of? And yet is he, this very tutor, out of all doubt, to be the instrument of doing a harsh and disgraceful thing, and that in the last resort, when all other methods are found ineffectual; and that too, because he ought to incur the child's resentment and aversion, rather than the father? No, surely, sir, it is not reasonable it should be so quite contrary, in my humble notion, there can be no doubt, but that it should be otherwise.

It should, methinks, be enough for a tutor, in case of a fault in a child, to threaten to complain to his father; but yet not to make such complaint without the child obstinately persists in his error, which, too, should be of a nature to merit such an appeal: and this, methinks, would highly contribute to preserve the parent's authority; who on this occasion, should never fail of extorting a promise of amendment, or of instantly punishing him with his own hands. And to soften the distaste he might conceive in resentment of too rigid complainings, it might not, possibly, be amiss, that his interposition in the child's favour, if the fault were not too flagrant, should be permitted to save him once or twice from the impending discipline.

'Tis certain that the passions, if I may so call them, of affection and aversion, are very early discoverable in children; insomuch that they will, even before they can speak, afford us marks for the detection of a hypocritical appearance of love to it before the parents' faces. For the fondness or averseness of the child to some servants, as I have

observed in other families, will at any time let one know, whether their love to the baby is uniform and the same, when one is absent, as present. In one case the child will reject with sullenness all the little sycophancies that are made to it in one's sight; while, on the other, its fondness of the person, who generally obliges it, is an infallible rule to judge of such a one's sincerity behind one's back. This little observation shows the strength of a child's resentments, and its sagacity, at the earliest age, in discovering who obliges, and who disobliges it: and hence one may infer, how improper a person he is, whom we would have a child to love and respect, or by whose precepts we would have it directed, to be the punisher of its faults, or to do any harsh or disagreeable office to it.

For my own part, dear sir, I must take the liberty to declare, that if the parent were not to inflict the punishment himself, I think it much better it should be given him, in the parent's presence, by the servant of the lowest consideration in the family, and whose manners and example one would be the least willing of any other he should follow. Just as the common executioner, who is the lowest and most flagitious officer of the commonwealth, and who frequently deserves, as much as the criminal, the punishment he is chosen to inflict, is pitched upon to perform, as a mark of greater ignominy, those sentences which are intended as examples to deter others from the commission of heinous crimes. And this was the method the Almighty took, when He was disposed to correct severely His chosen people: for in that case He generally did it by the hands of the most profligate nations around them, as we read in many places of the Old Testament.

But the following rule, among a thousand others equally excellent, I admire in Mr. Locke: 'when,' says he (for 'any misdemeanour), the father or mother looks sour on 'the child, every one else should put on the same coldness. to him, and nobody give him countenance till forgiveness ́asked, and a reformation of his fault has set him right ' again, and restored him to his former credit. If this

were constantly observed,' adds he, 'I guess there would 'be little need of blows or chiding: their own ease or 'satisfaction would quickly teach children to court com'mendation, and avoid doing that which they found everybody condemned, and they were sure to suffer for, without being chid or beaten. This would teach them modesty and shame, and they would quickly come to have a natural ' abhorrence for that which they found made them slighted ' and neglected by everybody.'

This affords me, dear sir, a pretty hint: for if ever your charming Billy shall be naughty, what will I do but proclaim throughout your worthy family that the little dear is in disgrace! And one shall shun him; another shall decline answering him; a third shall say, No, master, I cannot obey you, till your mamma is pleased with you: a fourth, Who shall mind what little masters bid them do, when little masters won't mind what their mammas say to them? And when the dear little soul finds this, he will come in my way (and I see, pardon me, my dear Mr. B——, he has some of his papa's spirit already, indeed he has!), and I will direct myself with double kindness to your beloved Davers, and to my Miss Goodwin, and take no notice at all of the dear creature, if I can help it, till I can see his papa (forgive my boldness) banished from his little sullen brow, and all his mamma rise to his eyes. And when his musical tongue shall be unlocked to own his fault, and promise amendment-Oh, then, how shall I clasp him to my bosom! and tears of joy, I know, will meet his tears of penitence!

How these flights, dear sir, please a body!—What delights have those mammas (which some fashionable ladies are quite unacquainted with) who can make their dear babies, and their first educations, their entertainment and diversion! To watch the dawnings of reason in them, to direct their little passions, as they show themselves, to this or that particular point of benefit and use; and to prepare the sweet virgin soil of their minds to receive the seeds of virtue and goodness so early, that, as they grow up, one need only

now a little pruning, and now a little watering, to make them the ornaments and delights of the garden of this life! And then their pretty ways, their fond and grateful endearments, some new beauty every day rising to observationoh, my dearest Mr. B-! whose enjoyments and pleasures are so great, as those of such mothers as can bend their minds, two or three hours every day, to the duties of the nursery!

I have a few other things to observe upon Mr. Locke's Treatise, which, when I have done, I shall read, admire, and improve by the rest, as my years and experiences advance; of which, in my proposed little book, I shall give you better proofs than I am able to do at present; raw, crude, and indigested as the notions of so young a mamma must needs be.

But these shall be the subjects of another letter; for now I am come to the pride and the pleasure I always have, when I subscribe myself, dearest sir,

Your ever dutiful and grateful

P. B

LETTER XCVI.

Mrs. B to Mr. B.

DEAR SIR, Mr. Locke gives a great many very pretty instructions relating to the play-games of children; but I humbly presume to object to what he says in one or two places.

He would not indulge them in any playthings, but what they make themselves, or endeavour to make. 'A smooth 'pebble, a piece of paper, the mother's bunch of keys, or anything they cannot hurt themselves with,' he rightly says, serves as much to divert little children, as those

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more chargeable and curious toys from the shops, which ' are presently put out of order and broken.'

These playthings may certainly do well enough, as he observes, for little ones: but, methinks, to a person of easy circumstances, since the making these toys employs the industrious poor, the buying them for the child might be dispensed with, though they were easily broken; and especially as they are of all prices, and some less costly and more durable than other.

Tops, gigs, battledores,' Mr. Locke observes,' which are 'to be used with labour, should indeed be procured them -not for variety, but exercise; but if they had a top, 'the scourge-stick and leather-strap should be left to their ' own making and fitting.'

But may I presume to say, That whatever be the good Mr. Locke proposes by this, it cannot be equal to the mischief children may do themselves in making these playthings? For must they not have implements to work with? and is not a knife, or other edged tool, without which it is impossible they can make or shape a scourge-stick, or any of their playthings, a fine instrument in a child's hands? This advice is the reverse of the caution warranted from all antiquity, that it is dangerous to meddle with edged tools: And I am afraid the tutor must often act the surgeon, and follow the indulgence with a styptic and a plaster; and the young gentleman's hands might be so often bound up, that it might indeed perhaps be one way to cure him of his earnest desire to play; but I can hardly imagine any other good that it can do him. For, I doubt the excellent consequences proposed by our author from this doctrine, such as to teach the child moderation in his desires, application, industry, thought, contrivance, and good husbandry ; qualities that, as he observes, will be useful to him when he is a man, are too remote to be engrafted upon such beginnings although it must be confessed that, as Mr. Locke wisely observes, good habits and industry cannot be too early inculcated.

But then, sir, may I ask, are not the very plays and