from her children; for when they were helpless and forlorn she, inhumanly, neglected her bounden duty towards them, either from an unwarrantable regard to a profligate fashion, or from motives still more reprehenfible: for all which reasons it is highly expedient, that no excuse for a mother's neglect in the fuckling of her child, provided that she be able to do it, should ever be confidered as of any force or weight. 2dly, I cannot forbear, freely, to condemn the custom of sending away children from home before they be ten years old; for the ties of family affection become strong and durable, only in proportion as they are entwined together by habits of social duties, intimacy, and love: children soon forget, and, of course, they disregard their parents if they live not with them; they may indeed be taught to say, and, perhaps, in a small degree, to understand the church catechifin, wherein they are enjoined to love, honour and fuccour their father and mother; but as they cannot, while estranged from their parents, feel, with any warmth, the value of their obligation, they will, assuredly, make light of the instruction, which, B 3 there therefore, cannot enter, deeply, into the heart: moreover, until children be accustomed, by parental attention, and intercourse, to live in the practical discharge of religious and moral duties, it is a mistake to suppose that they can receive profit from a promifcuous afsociation with other children; for if the mind remain uncultured without any good feed fown in it, the examples of their fellows will only serve as an hot-bed to bring forward and to ripen the feeds of their own natural depravity.-But a father may say that he has not leisure to educate his children at home? In answer, let him reflect that no other employment can be of equal importance; for his own happiness, the happiness of his family, perhaps of his pofterity for ever, may depend upon his right conduct in this weighty matter: but if it be granted that he have not leifure, why then, surely, the mother may execute this necessary work; but if she refuse, rather than loosen the ties of natural affection by long separations, it is proper to entrust the education of children to fome faithful dependant in the father's house. If, indeed, a boy be intended for a learned profeffion, it is proper to fill his mind with elementary elementary learning before he be ten years old; but this most necessary work, may, I apprehend, be nearly as well done in a nursery as in a common school. But if the good parent, inflamed with that pious family love, which is the glory of his humanity, do strive to fill up the measure of his duty by himself, carefully educating his little children, how glorious is the example! how great the reward! Young and fertile minds, thus duly nurtured, do often expand beyond, ay! far beyond, a father's fondest hopes, far beyond the common limit of human attainments! So many instances might be produced of good and great men, who became good and great by means of an early parental care, that the fact is incontrovertible: but if it be disputed, behold and admire the two * great lights in this our age and country, who owe their brilliance to the well-timed care of their illustrious parents. Perhaps it is a vulgar error to suppose, that these shining characters were, by nature, endowed with richer minds than ordinary men, because if education alone marks the difference of in tellect between the elegant European and the savage African, why might it not mark as great a difference between these great men and the common herd of mankind? 3dly, When it be found necessary to send a child from home for the sake of schoollearning, and for the sake of due intercourse with society, it should be well confidered where it may be most proper to fend him. Private tuition, after a lad be ten years old, is not to be recommended; for if he be to live in the world, it is then full time that he associate with many other persons of his own age and level, in order to acquire that wariness and difcretion which may be of use to him hereafter; for the leading principles that direct the conduct of boys and men, are more alike than we do commonly imagine; and experience that costs little is a good inftructor. -A school, then, wherein there be many in number, is to be preferred before that in which there are but few; but, except in the great schools, on royal foundation, how are we to discover the real abilities and manners of schoolmasters ? Report speaks too little or too much. A father, therefore, who loves his child, should be cautious cautious how he reposes confidence in report; he should act upon a certainty, for if he err, great will be the injury that his children must sustain. But parents, in general, are not competent to judge of the qualifications of professed teachers, and, therefore, it was wisely enacted, that every schoolmaster should be obliged to take out a licence for the exercise of his profeffion, under pain of forfeiture and imprisonment *. But alas! that wife * Extract from the Act of Parliament for the Uniformity of Public Prayers, &c. 14 Car. II. " And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every dean, canon, and prebendary, of every cathedral or collegiate church; and all masters and other heads, fellows, chaplains, and tutors, of or in any college, hall, house of learning, or hofpital, and every public profeffor and reader in either of the universities, and in every college elsewhere; and every parson, vicar, curate, lecturer, and every other person in holy orders; and every schoolmaster, keeping any public or private school, and every person instructing or teaching any youth in any house or private family, as a tutor or schoolmaster, who, upon the first day of May, which shall be in the year of our Lord God One Thousand Six Hundred Sixty-two, or at any time thereafter, shall be incumbent, or have pofsession of any deanery, canonry, prebend, mastership, headship, fellowship, profeffor's place, or reader's place, parfonage, vicarage, or any other ecclefiaftical dignity or |