without becoming his confident. He may communicate to him from day to day the most valuable leffons. He may form his mind to the moft liberal fentiments. He may breathe into him the philanthropy of a Fenelon and the ele-. vated foul of a Cato. If he be a man of merit, and duly conscious of his merit, he will not fear that he can mifearry in an attempt to excite the fympathy of his pupil. He will defy him to. withhold that fympathy. He will difiifs with generous careleffnefs the queftion of an entire confidence and the communication of little cares and little projects. His hold upon the youthful mind will be of a higher and more decifive denomination. It would be ftrange indeed, if any one who was initiated in the true fcience of the human mind, did not know how to wake the fprings of the foul of an infant. And, while the pupil is continually fubject to the most aufpicious influences in all that is most effential to human welfare, while his mind is impregnated with the most generous fentiments and the pureft virtues, it may well be believed that, in incidental and inferior points, he will not difgrace the principles by which he has been formed.

13

ESSAY

wifeft defigns, and so easily are we made the dupes of a love of power, that the most skilful inftructor may often be expected to fail, in this moft arduous of problems, this opprobrium of the art of education. It were better that he should not attempt it, than that he should attempt it by illiberal and forbidden means. If he cannot be the chofen confident, he may at leaft refrain from acting the fpy or inquifitor upon his pupil. Let him not extort, what he cannot frankly and generously win. Let him not lie in wait to surprise from the pupil, what the pupil will not confent to give. Let him not fo far debase the integrity of man, as to play the thief and the eaves-dropper. One of the most facred principles in focial life, is honour, the forbearance that man is entitled to claim from man, that a man of worth would as foon fteal my purse or forge a title-deed to my eftate, as read the letter he fees lying upon my table. One of the greatest errors of education, is that children are not treated enough like men, that they are not supported with sufficient care in the empire of their little peculium, that they are not made to feel their importance and to venerate themfelves.

There is much that the preceptor may do for the improvement and advantage of his pupil

without

He will difinifs with

without becoming his confident. He may communicate to him from day to day the moft valuable leffons. He may form his mind to the most liberal fentiments. He may breathe into him the philanthropy of a Fenelon and the ele-. vated foul of a Cato. If he be a man of merit, and duly confcious of his merit, he will not fear that he can mifcarry in an attempt to excite the fympathy of his pupil. He will defy him to withhold that fympathy. generous careleffnefs the queftion of an entire confidence and the communication of little cares and little projects. His hold upon the youthful mind will be of a higher and more decifive denomination. It would be ftrange indeed, if any one who was initiated in the true fcience of the human mind, did not know how to wake the fprings of the foul of an infant. And, while the pupil is continually subject to the most aufpicious influences in all that is most effential to human welfare, while his mind is impregnated with the most generous fentiments and the pureft virtues, it may well be believed that, in incidental and inferior points, he will not difgrace the principles by which he has been formed.

ESSAY

itself in the private and domeftic intercourse of parent and child, is that of determining what books it is proper that children fhould read, and what books they fhould not read.

It frequently happens that there are books read by the parent, which are conceived improper for the child. A collection of books, it may be, is viewed through glass doors, their outfides and labels are vifible to the child; but the key is carefully kept, and a fingle book. only at a time, felected by the parent, is put into his hands. A daughter is prohibited from the reading of novels; and in this prohibition will often commence a trial of skill, of quick conveyance on the part of the child, and of fufpicious vigilance on the part of the parent.

*

Ought children to be thus restrained? Is it our duty to digeft for our offspring, as the church of Rome has been accustomed to digeft for her weaker members, an Index Expurgatorius,

!

Thirdly, the trial of skill thus inftituted between the parent and child, is of the most pernicious tendency. The child is employed in doing that, in which it is his endeavour not to be detected. He muft liften with anxious attention, left he should be burst in upon before he is aware. He muft break off his reading, and hide his book, a thousand times upon a falfe alarm. At length, when the interruption really occurs, he must roufe his attention, and compofe his features. He impofes imperious filence upon the flutterings of his heart; he pitches to the true key of falfhood the tone of his voice; the object of his moft anxious effort, is to appear the thing that he is not. It is not poffible to imaginę a fchool of more refined hypocrify.'

The great argument in favour of this project of an Index Expurgatorius, is derived from the various degrees of moral or immoral tendency that is to be found in literary compofitions.

One of the most obvious remarks that offer, themselves under this head, is, that authors themfelves are continually falling into the groffeft iniftakes in this refpect, and fhow themselves fuperlatively ignorant of the tendency of their own writings. Nothing is more futile, than the formal and regular moral frequently annexed to Efop's fables of animals. Examine the fable impartially, and you will find that

the