norant people. Indeed, the neceſſity of a maſter's giving the parents ſome ſample of the boys abilities, which during the vacation is ſhewn to every viſitor[1], is productive of more miſchief than would at firſt be ſuppoſed. For they are ſeldom done entirely, to ſpeak with moderation, by the child itſelf; thus the maſter countenances falſehood, or winds the poor machine up to ſome extraordinary exertion, that injures the wheels, and ſtops the progreſs of gradual improvement. The memory is loaded with unintelligible words, to make a ſhew of, without the underſtanding's acquiring any diſtinct ideas: but only that education deſerves emphatically to be termed cultivation of mind, which teaches young people how to begin to think. The imagination ſhould not be allowed to debauch the underſtanding before it gained ſtrength, or vanity will become the forerunner of vice: for every way of exhibiting the acquirements of a child is injurious to its moral character.
How much time is loſt in teaching them to recite what they do not underſtand? whilſt ſeated on benches, all in their bell array, the mammas liſten with aſtoniſhment to the parrot-like prattle, uttered in ſolemn cadences, with all the pomp of ignorance and folly. Such exhibitions only ſerve to ſtrike the ſpreading fibres of vanity through the whole mind; for they neither teach children to ſpeak fluently, nor behave gracefully. So far from it, that theſe frivolous purſuits might comprehenſively be termed the ſtudy of affecta-
- ↑ I now particularly allude to the numerous academies in, and about London, and to the behaviour of the trading part of this great city.
