Clarke, Mr. Burgh, and all their partifans, that, when a boy is defigned to fill a subordinate sphere play at fpan-farthing with the page, or young black-a-moor, or little favorite foot-boy, one of which is his principal confidant and bofom friend. "There is one young lord in this town, who, by an unexampled piece of good fortune, was miraculously fnatched out of the gulph of ignorance, confined to a public fchool for a due term of years, well whipped when he deferved it, clad no better than his comrades, and always their play-fellow on the fame foot, had no precedence in the fchool, but what was given him by his merit, and loft it whenever he was negligent. It is well known how many mutinies were bred at this unprecedented treatment, what complaints among his relations, and other great ones of both fexes; that his stockings with filver clocks were ravished from him; that he wore his own hair; that his dress was undiftinguished; that he was not fit to appear at a ball or affembly, nor fuffered to go to either: and it was with the utmoft difficulty, that he became qualified for his prefent removal, where he may probably be further perfecuted, and poffibly with fuccefs, if the firmness of a very worthy governor, and his own good difpofitions, will not preferve him. I confefs, I cannot but wish he may go on in the way he began, because I have a curiofity to know by fo fingular an experiment, whether truth, honefty, juftice, temperance, courage and good fenfe, acquired by a fchool and college education, may not produce a very tolerable lad, although he fhould happen to fail in one or two of thofe accomplishments, which in the general vogue are held fo important to the finishing of a gentleman. "It is true, I have known an academical education to have been exploded in public affemblies; and phere in commercial or active life, to trouble him with Latin verfification, is to waste his valuable and have heard more than one or two perfons of high rank declare, they could learn nothing more at Oxford and Cambridge, than to drink ale and fmoak tobacco; wherein I firmly believed them; and could have added fome hundred examples from my own obfervation in one of thofe univerfities; but they all were of young heirs fent thither, only for form, either from fchools, where they were not fuffered by their careful parents to ftay above three months in the year, or from under the management of French family-tutors, who yet often attended them to their college, to prevent all poffibility of their improvement: but I never yet knew any one perfon of quality who followed his ftudies at the univerfity, and carried away his juft proportion of learning, that was not ready, upon all occafions, to celebrate and defend that courfe of education, and to prove a patron of learned men. There is one circumftance in a learned education which ought to have much weight, even with those who have no learning at all. The books read at schools and colleges are full of incitements to virtue, and difcouragements from vice, drawn from the wifeft reafons, the ftrongest motives, and the most influencing examples. Thus young minds are filled early with an inclination to good, and an abhorrence of evil, both which increafe in them, according to the advances they make in literature; and although they may be, and often are, drawn by the temptations of youth, and the opportunities of a large fortune, into fome irregularities, when they come forward into the great world; it is ever with reluctance and compunction of mind, because their biafs to virtue ftill continues. They may ftray fometimes out of infirmity and compliance, but they luable time. Such a mode of gaining an intimate knowledge of the claffics, is defirable to those only who are to affume a profeffion, or adorn a fortune. they will foon return to the right road, and keep it always in view. I fpeak only of thofe exceffes which are too much the attendants of youth and warmer blood; for, as to the points of honour, truth, justice, and other noble gifts of the mind, wherein the temperature of the body hath no concern, they are seldom or ever known to be wild. "Why should my fon be a fcholar, when it is not intended that he should live by his learning? by this rule, if what is commonly faid be true, that money answereth all things, why should my fon be boneft, temperate, just or charitable, fince he hath no intention to depend upon any of thefe qualities for a maintenance ?" Dr. SWIFT. "I fhall detain you no longer (to ufe the words of Milton) in the demonftration of what we should not do, but strait conduct you to a hill fide, where I will point you out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first afcent, but elfe fo fmooth, fo green, fo full of goodly profpect, and melodious founds on every fide, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming." This paffage is taken from Milton's Tractate, which, though it contains fome impracticable rules, is an admirable compofition. +"If I might advife, I would have boys kept wholly from this fort of exercife." Mr. CLARKE. All these objections appear very plaufible to illiterate perfons, and thofe very many who know not what a claffical education means, or what advantages it tends to produce. To perfons in fuch circumstances, and with fuch liberal views I ftrongly recommend an adherence to the plan which includes Latin verfification. I am not fo unreasonable as to recommend the practice, merely because it has been long established; but I own I derive an argument for its excellence, from its long eftablishment. And I will add, that I know, from actual experience, that it is the best method of giving a student a refined taste for claffical expreffion *. The neceflity of compofing Latin verfe, renders the ftudent more careful in remarking and selecting elegancies, than he would be, if he were only to read without imitating a Horace or a Virgil +. They Cowley, Milton, Addison, Gray, Jortin, and a great many other men, of fine tafte as well as profound learning, were eminent in LATIN VERSE. EFFECTS well known and indisputable are the criteria by which one ought to judge of the modes of education. Mr. Locke fays," He whofe defign is to excel in English poetry, would not, I guess, think the way to it were to make his firft effays in Latin verfes.' Yet the most eminent writers have done fo. + See fome good remarks on writing Latin verfe and Latin profe, and on many particulars of claffical education, in Dr. Beattie's Effay on the Utility of claffical Learning. Mr. Clarke, who is a great oppofer of the practice of writing Latin verfe, tells us, " he thinks Mr. Locke's Effay, and Mr. Chillingworth's Defence, preferable to twenty Iliads or Eneids put together." What occafion is there to make any comparison between works fo different in their nature? The inelegant diction of Mr. Clarke's writings They who think differently from me, may very likely be right, though they appear to me to err. But I believe the greater part of the regularly educated, think as I do on this fubject. I have, however, found, upon enquiry, that in fome of our most popular fchools, Latin verfe is attended to as an exercife, too early, too conftantly, and too indifcriminately *. For the fake of gaining prizes, and for other lefs defenfible reafons, it is made THE FIRST OBJECT, which it certainly ought not to be. Boys who happen to have no tafte for it, however excellent their understandings in other respects, have, at those schools, no encouragement... But, omitting to expatiate on a subject rather invidious, I will proceed to specify that plan which I judge moft likely to facilitate the acquifition of this elegant, though fubordinate attainment. A common method is, to fuffer boys at first to write verfes formed of words combined, without regard to meaning or grammatical conftruction, but, at the fame time, with a close attention to the rules of profody. This method certainly contributes to facilitate the purfuit, though it is not universally approved. It should not indeed be continued very long ; proves that he was fincere in flighting the truly claffical education. He appears, however, to have been a very good man, and certainly made fome valuable additions to our catalogue of school books. It is abfurd to confine a dunce, who can hardly compose a profaic fentence grammatically correct, 10 the ligata oratio, to metrical compofition, where the difficulties are greatly increased. E 2 but |