incredible pains, one or two languages, and some other matters of a like nature, which perhaps they would seldom have occasion to use. The end of masters in the long course of their studies is to habituate their scholars to serious application of mind, to make them love and value the sciences, and to cultivate in them such a taste as shall make them thirst after them when they have gone from school; to point out the method of attaining them, and to make them thoroughly sensible of their use and value; and by that means dispose them for the different employments to which it shall please God to call them. Besides this, the end of masters should be to improve their hearts and understandings, to protect their innocence, to inspire them with principles of honor and probity, to train them up to good habits, to correct and subdue in them by gentle means the ill inclinations they shall be observed to have, such as pride, insolence, an high opinion of themselves, and a saucy vanity continually employed in depreciating others, a blind self-love, solely attentive to its own advantage, a spirit of raillery which is pleased with offending and insulting others, an indolence and sloth which render all the good qualities of the mind useless.

ARTICLE II.-To Study the Character of Children in Order to be Able to Manage Them Well.

Education, properly speaking, is the art of managing and forming the mind. Of all sciences it is the most difficult, the most extraordinary, and at the same time the most important, but yet not sufficiently studied. To judge of it by common experience one would say that of all animals man is the most untractable.

The master's first care is thoroughly to study and search into the genius and character of the children, for by this he

must regulate his conduct. There are some who are lazy and remiss, unless they are continually called upon, and others can not bear to be treated imperiously; some will be restrained by fear, and others on the contrary discouraged. We can gain nothing out of some but by mere labor and application; and others will study only by fits and starts: to endeavor to bring them all to a level, and make them submit to one and the same rule is to attempt to force nature. The prudence of the master will consist in keeping a medium, equally removed from the two extremes; for here the ill so closely borders upon the good, that it is easy to mistake the one for the other, and it is this which renders the management of youth so difficult. Too much liberty makes way for licentiousness; and too much constraint makes them stupid; commendation excites and encourages, but it also inspires vanity and presumption. We must therefore keep a just temper, and hold an even hand between these two

extremes.

Children carry within them the principles, and in a manner the seeds of all virtues and vices; and the principal point is thoroughly to study at first their genius and character, to become acquainted with their humor, their disposition, and talents; and above all, to discover their passions and prevailing inclinations; not with a view or expectation of entirely changing their temper, of making him gay, for instance, who is naturally grave, or him serious who is of a lively and cheerful disposition. It is with certain characters, as with personal defects, they may be somewhat improved, but not absolutely cured. Now the way of growing acquainted in this manner with children is to give them great liberty to discover their inclinations whilst young, to let them follow their natural bent, in order to discern it the better; to comply with their little infirmities, to encourage them to let us see them; to observe them whilst they

think least of it, especially at their play, when they show their tempers most; for children are naturally plain and without reserve; but as soon as they think themselves taken notice of, they throw themselves under a restraint, and keep upon their guard.

ARTICLE III.—To Assume an Immediate Authority over Children.

This maxim is of the utmost moment during their whole education, and for all persons who are charged with it. By authority I mean a certain air and ascendant which imprint respect and procure obedience. It is neither age nor stature, the tone of the voice, nor threatening, by which this authority is to be obtained: but an even, firm, moderate disposition of mind, which is always master of itself, is guided only by reason, and never acts by fancy or passion.

It is this qualification and talent which keeps all in order, establishes an exact discipline, sees what commands are observed, saves the trouble of reprimands, and prevents almost all punishments. Now it is from the very first entrance upon their government that parents and masters should assume this ascendant. If they do not seize upon this favorable moment, and possess themselves early of this authority, they will have all the pains in the world to do it afterwards, and the child will domineer at last.

The first care of a pupil who is put under a new master, is to study and sound him. There is nothing he does not attempt, he spares no industry or artifice to get the better of him if he can. When he sees all his pains and cunning are to no purpose, and that the master calmly and quietly opposes them with a gentle and reasonable resolution, which always ends in making himself obeyed, he then yields, and cheerfully submits, and this kind of little war, or rather

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skirmish, where on both sides they have tried each other's forces, is happily concluded with a peace and good understanding which make them easy all the rest of the time they are to live together.

ARTICLE IV.-To Make Oneself Beloved and Feared.

The respect, upon which the authority I have spoken of is founded, includes two things, fear and love, which lend each other a mutual assistance, and are the two great springs and hinges of all government in general, and of the conduct of children in particular. As they are of an age wherein reason, instead of having the superiority, scarce begins to show itself, it is requisite that fear should sometimes be called in to its assistance and take its place; but if it comes alone, and the allurement of pleasure does not follow close at its heels, it is not long regarded, and its instructions produce but a slight effect, which the hope of impunity soon removes. Hence it comes to pass that in point of education the greatest skill lies in knowing how to blend discreetly together a force, which shall keep children within due bounds without discouragement, and a mildness which shall gain upon them without indulging them too much.

But some will say, though this manner of governing children by kindness and gentleness is easy perhaps to a private tutor, is it practicable in the case of a principal of a college, a regent of a class, or a master who has a great many scholars in one common chamber? And how is it possible in all these places to keep up an exact discipline, without which no good is to be expected, and at the same time to gain the love of the scholars? I own that nothing is more difficult in this circumstance than to keep up a just medium betwixt too great severity and an excessive indulgence; but the thing is not impossible, since we see it

practiced by persons who have the uncommon talent of making themselves feared, and still more beloved. The whole depends upon the behavior of the masters. If they

are such as they should be, their success will answer their desires.

ARTICLE V.- Of Correction.

The most common and shortest way of correcting children is by the rod, which is almost the only remedy that is known or made use of by those who are entrusted with the education of youth. But this remedy becomes often a more dangerous evil than those they would cure, if employed out of season or beyond measure. For besides that the corrections of the rod and the lash we are now speaking of, have something unbecoming, mean, and servile in them, they have nothing in themselves to remedy any fault committed, nor is it likely that such a correction may become useful to a child, if the shame of suffering for having done ill has not a greater power over his mind than the punishment itself. Besides, these corrections give an incurable aversion to the things we should endeavor to make them love. They do not change the humor nor work any reformation in the natural disposition, but only restrain it for a time, and serve to make the passions break out with more violence, when they are at liberty. They often stupefy the mind, and harden it in evil. For a child that has so little honor as to be insensible to reproof, will accustom himself to blows like a slave, and grow obstinate against punishment.

Must we therefore conclude that we ought never to make use of this sort of correction? That is not my meaning. For I am far from condemning in general the use of the rod, after what has been said of it in several places of Scripture, and especially in the Book of Proverbs; but it