antiqui? quæ mala primum in urbe nata, mox per Italiam fusa, jam in provincias manant: quamquam nostra nobis notiora sunt. Ego de urbe et his propriis ac vernaculis vitiis loquar, quæ natos statim excipuint, et per singulos ætatis gradus cumulantur, si prius de severitate ac disciplinâ majorum circa educandos formandosque liberos pauca prædixero. Jamprimum suus cuique filius ex castâ parente natus, non in cellâ emtæ nutricis, sed gremio ac sinu matris educabatur, cujus præcipua laus erat, tueri domum et inservire liberis. Eligebatur autem aliqua major natu propinqua, cujus probatis spectatisque moribus, omnis cujuspiam familiæ suboles committeretur, coram quâ neque dicere fas erat quod turpe dictu, neque facere quod inhonestum factu videretur. Ac non studia modó curasque, sed remissiones etiam lususque puerorum, sanctitate quadam ac verecundiâ temperabut. Sic Corneliam Gracchorum, sic Aureliam Cæsaris, sic Attiam Augusti, matrem, præfuisse educationibus, ac produxisse principes liberos, accepimus. Quæ disciplina ac severitas eò pertinebat, ut sincera et integra et nullis pravitatibus detorta uniuscujusque: natura, toto statim pectore, arriperet artes honestas: et sive ad rem militarem, sive ad juris scientiam, sive ad eloquentiæ studium inclinasset, id solum ageret, id universum hauriret.”* *“Who can now be ignorant that eloquence and the fine arts have fallen below their ancient glory, not from a dearth of men, but from the indolence of youth, and the neglect of parents, and the ignorance of instructors, and the deterioration of the ancient discipline? The evils, begun in the city, have poured themselves over Italy, and now inundate the very provinces. Ours are, however, more visible. As I Juvenal devotes his fourteenth Satire to the example of parents and its influence on children. He shows how soon the child takes character, that from the earliest years the blossom sets: "Cum septimus annus Transierit puero, nondum omni dente renato, Barbatos licet admoveas mille inde magistros, confine myself to the prevalent vices of the Metropolis, vices which destroy our youth and gather themselves into every stage of life,—I will first speak of the uncompromising discipline which our ancestors exercised in teaching and training their children. In those times, each child could boast a modest mother. The infant was not sent, as soon as born, to the hovel of a mercenary nurse, but was reared on the knee and breast of its own mother, whose highest ambition was to regulate her home and wait upon her offspring. Some matron, related to the family, distinguished by unblemished morals, was set in charge of the little ones, before whose presence nothing low could be said and nothing dishonourable could be done. She ordered not only their studies and painstaking, but also their relaxations and sports, with a certain sanctity and reverence. It is thus we find that Cornelia the mother of the Gracchi, that Aurelia the mother of Cæsar, that Attia the mother of Augustus, superintended the education and unfolded the mind of their noble children. The consequence of all this unyielding system was, that the disposition of each was simple and self-consistent, unwarped by vices, and undiverted from scholastic pursuits: whatever was his bias, whether to military detail, or to the science of jurisprudence, or to the cultivation of eloquence, he gave himself to that pursuit, and thoroughly made himself master of it." "When the seventh year had gone over the head of the boy, ere he has renewed his first teeth, although you put him under the instruction of a thousand most venerable masters, from that time he remains the same." His lines deserve immortality: "Nil dictu foedum, visuque hæc limina tangat : Such language proves that the domestic system of his city and country had greatly fallen, which will always be the effect of public institutions where attendance is enforced, if not by penalty, by that which is more oppressive, the influence of fashion and the condition of preferment! mon. The Roman Citizen was formally constituted, by the Patria Potestas, the very sovereign of his family. And it is worthy of remark, that Plutarch objects to the laws and institutions of Rome, that there was no public rule and system of education, such as existed in LacedæHorace shows us that "the great boys, sprung from noble centurions, with satchel and tablet swinging on their left arm," went to the private school, and settled their accounts monthly: while,-for none can be more simply tender than the lyrist in his pensive mood, -he describes his father, humble in circumstances but generous in views, taking him for education to Rome, still never abrogating domestic superintendence: * 66 Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes 'Nothing impure in expression or in look must profane those eaves a religious reverence is due to youth." "He acting still as my uncompromising guardian, was always at the elbow of my teachers."-Satir: lib. i. 6. We should scarcely have expected that in the Oceana of Harrington such opinions could be found. But that powerful and independent author is a very earnest advocate of them. "To set men to the work of industry, which is health, the Commonwealth must begin betimes with them, or it will be too late; and the means by which she sets them to it is education, the plastic art of government. But it is as frequent as sad in experience (whether through negligence, or, which in the consequence is all one, or worse, over-fondness in the domestic performance of this duty) that innumerable children come to owe their utter perdition to their own parents; in each of which the commonwealth loses a citizen. Wherefore the laws of a government, however wholesome soever in themselves, are such as, if men by a congruity in their education be not bred to find a relish in them, they will be sure to loathe and detest. The education, therefore, of a man's own children, is not wholly to be committed or trusted to himself." This reasoning is the more strange, inasmuch as the parent is supposed ready to do his duty; and should he fail, it is imputable to the excess of kindness. But could the parent, endowed with those dispositions, bring up the child in any way that was not conformable to the rules of that government? If that were good, would not patriotism and allegiance be parts of the education? Is not submission to the civil rule, is not the admiration of the civil constitution, the very general characteristic of the governed? How vile must be that tyranny which youth will be sure to "loathe and detest!" How instantly should it be swept from the face of the earth! Hobbes, in his Leviathan, strongly avers this prerogative of the Ruler to manage the education of his subjects. "They also that have authority to teach, or to enable others to teach, the people their duty to the sovereign power, and instruct them in the knowledge of what is just and unjust, thereby to render them more apt to live in godliness, and in peace amongst themselves, and resist the public enemy, are public ministers: ministers in that they do it not by their own authority, but by another's; and public, because they do it (or should do it) by no authority but that of the Sovereign. The monarch or the sovereign assembly only hath immediate authority from God to teach and instruct the people; and no man but the sovereign receiveth his power Dei gratiâ simply; that is to say, from the favour of none but God: all other, receive theirs from the favour and providence of God, and their sovereigns; as in a monarchy Dei gratiâ et Regis; or Dei providentiâ et voluntate Regis." It is not easy to determine what are the exact ideas of Sir Thomas More in his interesting romance of Utopia. Some are beautifully domestic regulations. "Every mother is nurse to her own child, unless either death, or sickness, be the let." "All in their childhood be "The city consisteth of instructed in learning." families the families most commonly be made of kin |