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Then several of these shift their places of service, or leave them in hopes to find better; and by this means it comes to pass, that the very servants that are out of place in London, perhaps would sometimes be sufficient to plough up half a country or a diocese.

Far be it from me to blame all those gentlemen, who change the country-seat of their ancestors, for a habitation in the city: Many of them may have a just call of providence for this change. It is not my province nor pretence to direct others in the choice of their dwellings: Yet I cannot but think if this practice should increase and become universal among the more sober and religious part of the gentry, perhaps it may have an unhappy tendency to weaken their good influence on the adjacent country, to diminish the true strength of the nation, and endanger our civil liberties. But I recal myself from this hint. My present business is only to shew, that it is not our charityschools, but this conduct of many rich men in the country, whether it be right or wrong, that calls off such a multitude of hands from husbandry.

3. Suppose it should be granted for once, which is not always true, that none but the ignorant will be brought to perform the meanest services; yet after all the education that is, provided for children in our charity-schools, there will be stupid and ignorant creatures enough for those lower offices of life: There will be many in every country, who live not within the reach of these schools; and there will be some whose parts, and study, and improvement in these schools, or in better, will never arrive above a fitness for the meanest services. I confess I am not of the opinion of these gentlemen, that none but blockheads will follow the plough: But if I were of that mind, yet I might venture to say, the plough will never want hands, if it does not stand still till there be no block heads. I add further, with regard to the charity-schools of this great city; that those children of the poor who are born in London, are not born in a place to make ploughmen of them, even if they were left in the highest degrees of their native ignorance. They would not leave the city, nor be tempted to go down to country parishes to be employed in the business of the husbandman, though they should never have opportunity to learn their letters.

4. But you say, "They grow haughty and proud, by means of the little knowledge they attain in those schools." I would ask are there not as many as haughty and as proud, who have no learning at all? I have seen some servants who have been blessed with a happy education, and have attained far greater degrees of knowledge both of the things of God and men, than any of the rest of the family, and yet they have been more humble, more diligent, more ready to put their hands to mean servile

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offices than others who have not had a tenth part of their capacity or their improvement. I know at this time two servants in one large family, who were instructed in one of the charityschools of the protestant dissenters, and yet according to their stations, they are as diligent, as humble, and as willing servants in the house. It is chiefly their temper, or their want of due instruction, rather than their learning, that renders servants either haughty or humble.

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Here perhaps, the great apostle shall be cited to countenance this objection; I Cor. viii. 1. Knowledge puffeth up. But why should not the next sentence also be added, viz. that charity edifieth? Let the charity of these gentlemen who make this objection, encourage these schools, where the pride of the poor may be abated, where the souls of these young sinners may be edified, in humility and every virtue, where they may be taught their proper duty and behaviour both to God and

man.

5. But I add in the last place, that if all the nation were as happy as I could wish, in the enjoyment of some degrees of good education, and if all the children of the poor were taught to read, then the art of reading would be as common as that of speaking, and no one would look on himself as superior to another, because he knows his letters, and could join syllables together. Then it would follow that no person would refuse to do the meanest services, if there were none beneath himself. For my part, I wish that there was not the meanest figure of mankind in Great Britain, whether employed in the drudgeries of a family, or holding the plough, but knew how to read his bible, that he might be better acquainted with his duty in this world, and the way to attain happiness in the next.

Objection III. But is there not a general complaint of bad servants in our day? Are they not high and haughty and wasteful? Do they not claim larger wages, and at the same time refuse to do the servile works that belong to their place? And what can this be imputed to more than to their education in these charity-schools, wherein they are bred up to more learning and knowledge than the poor had in the days of our fathers.

Answer 1. Give me leave in the first place to make a humble enquiry, whether masters or mistresses are in our day so pious, so virtuous, so frugal, so regular in their conduct, and so humble as in the days of our fathers? Whether families are regulated with so much care, and whether family religion is maintained with such a holy constancy? Whether there be such wise government and order, as in the days of those who went before us? Whether children are educated in the practice of that modesty, that humility, that diligence as in the time of our

ancestors? And if there be such a sad degeneracy found amongst the higher part of mankind, it is no wonder, if the lower ranks of human nature are corrupt, and grow degenerate too: So that you see this corruption among servants, may be accounted for, without laying all the load on our schools of charity.

2. Some persons who have made their observations on human affairs, are ready to think that the luxury and finery of this age is very much increased, and that in one particular instance, which has no good influence on the temper and deportment of servants. "Do we not desire, say they, that our servants now-a-days should make a better appearance and shine brighter than is necessary for persons of their rank? Are there no masters who love to be waited on by servants in such apparel, as may make them think too well of themselves? Have mistresses done nothing to support that pride, haughtiness and vanity of mind in servants, which they afterwards complain of? And it may be enquired, whether some servants have not been encou raged to think themselves too good for the lowest and meanest offices of life, when at other seasons, they appear as gay, and glistering and as well dressed as their superiors, and can hardly be distinguished from them." I would only hint this way of reasoning here, not to undertake the vindication of it, but merely to be made the matter of further enquiry and consideration: For I would not have those crimes of servants charged on our charityschools, which perhaps may have their foundation in the imprudence of their superiors.

3. If it can be laid at all to the charge of any charityschools that they have been the unhappy instruments of increasing pride among some servants, yet I am well assured, that those schools amongst protestant dissenters have done very little or none of this mischief. For amongst the vast multitudes of servants that are in Great Britain, I am persuaded that there is scarce one menial servant in two hundred, which has been bred up in the dissenting charity-schools. And it is a very hard case, if these schools must bear the accusation and the guilt of those crimes in general, whereof not one in two hundred can possibly belong to them.

For my part, I could wish where there is one servant of either sex bred up in our charity-schools, there were twenty educated there: I should then hope for fewer complaints of this kind in the world. And if we do not take care to train up more children of the lower rank in our schools, in order to fit them for servants I have good reason to say that we shall scarce find servants who will comply with the religious customs of our families, and we shall see cause to repent it on more accounts than one.

I would persuade myself, that the masters and mistresses of these schools among us, teach the children of the poor which are under their care, to know what their station of life is, how mean their circumstances are, how necessary it is for them to be diligent, laborious, humble and faithful, honest and submissive, what duties they owe to the rest of mankind, and particularly to their superiors, whensoever they shall be placed in families. I am sure this ought to be a part of their instruction, and their teachers should have this charge given them, that the children should be educated in such a manner, as to know and reinem ber, that they are bred up by charity, and to learn and practise humility upon all occasions*.

4. If there should happen once now and then such an instance, if a child should grow vain and haughty under the advantages of the instruction which he receives from the bounty of others, if a servant thus educated, should now and then be found unwilling to perform the duties of his place, this is to be reckoned an abuse of knowledge, and not a necessary effect of it. We are not to charge any useful constitution among mankind, with those unhappy consequences which are merely the effects of that constitution abused. There is nothing so well contrived, nor so happily managed in the affairs of men, but may be perverted to vile and unhappy purposes. Surely no man would judge that the sun in the heavens should be blotted out, because it bestows day-light on the practice of a thousand iniquities. The admirable art of couching a cataract and giving sight to the blind, should not be forbidden, because a man who had enjoyed this benefit, used his eyes to commit theft, or murder, or to write treason or blasphemy. To give knowledge to those who are born in ignorance, is but like couching a cataract, it is letting in the light to a blind soul: Cursed are they that so horribly abuse this light: But they are not blessed that would withhold it from all, for fear lest some should abuse it. The inconveniences of having none of the children of the poor taught to read, would be vastly greater, and bring far heavier

* On this occasion I cannot but transcribe a passage of the reverend Mr. Chandler in his late sermon on this subject, viz. "Undoubtedly pride and sloth ought never to be encouraged in any, especially not in the children of the poor, who are to maintain themselves, and become useful to the public by a modest, diligent and industrious behaviour. And in order to prevent the effects complained of it is highly necessary, that besides their being taught the common princi. ples of religion in the catechism, they should have some particular instructions proper to their condition, continually inculcated into their minds; and be taught such little portions of holy scripture as recommend labour and industry, fidelity and honesty, modesty and humility, gratitude and submission and the like virtues upon which their future usefulness more especially depends. I know not whether there be any body of such instructions drawn up for the use of the charity schools. If not I am persuaded it is a defect that ought to be supplied." This I have taken notice of in the preface, and have had some assurance given me, that such a book will be published..

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disadvantages on the nation, than the injury that is done by, here and there, an ill-tempered boy or girl, who have made an ill use of the knowledge they have attained, and grow vain and conceited.

Objection IV. But if the poor were permitted to learn to read their bibles, this might be done by the labour of half an hour in the day. A very little time, will serve to have their letters pointed out to them, and to teach them to spell their syllables, and put them together. There is no need of whole days' instruction for such a purpose as this. They ought to employ their lives in work, and their limbs in bodily labour; they should chiefly be taught to get their own bread: And if they were thus educated, they would be made much fitter for servants and labourers.

Answer 1. Have all the children of the richer world such sharp parts and such a sprightly genius, as to learn the art of reading with so much ease, and in so little a time? Do the persons who make this objection, find all their own children so ingenious as to improve one daily half-hour so happily, and find it sufficient to acquire a good talent in reading? Why then should it be expected, that the children of the poor should learn with so little pains, and so scanty a share of instruction: Do these gentlemen suppose that the poor are of a sharper make, and have greater penetration than the children who are born in better circumstances?

I am verily persuaded that one half-hour in a day, is by no means sufficient to acquaint the younger parts of mankind with this useful science. If they had no more labour bestowed on them, they would never attain a competency of skill to make sense of what they read. I have known several persons, who for want of being taught the art of reading well in their younger years, blunder so often, and mis-name their words, that they can hardly understand the plainest chapter in their bible when they read it. And if we consider the capacities of the greatest part of mankind, I think two or three hours in a day, may well be employed for this purpose, if we would ever make their skill in reading serviceable to them for the business of this life or that of another. Such a portion of time is little enough to make children become good readers except where the genius of a child is very extraordinary, or where there are several years allotted for this learning.

2. I much approve the joining of labour and learning together in the education of the poorer parts of mankind. I think it necessary that they should be bred up to work with their hands, since the providence of God calls them to gain their bread by the sweat of their brows: And they ought not to cat the bread of idleness. I would never have them educated in the

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