LECTURE VI.

WHAT ARE THE CHIEF ERRORS COMMITTED IN THE EDUCATION OF THE WEALTHIER CLASSES, AND BY WHAT MEANS CAN THE EDUCATION OF BOTH POOR AND RICH

BE MADE TO PRODUCE, IN THE COURSE OF TIME, A

MORE HARMONIOUS STATE OF SOCIETY.

THERE is, as we have seen, much narrowmindedness, and much false principle, prevailing in the education of the poor; but I fear that the children of the rich fare no better; that, on the contrary, their education is more perverse in proportion to the greater affluence of means,means which, as the parents look upon them as their own, so they employ them for the accomplishment of their own purposes. They consider even the children themselves as their property, and with this inveterate view of their rights, and the little clearness they have on the subject of their duties, it is not at all to be wondered at, that they sin continually against nature, that is to say, against the will of God concerning the child. The vices and prejudices of the wealthier classes are, though outwardly less apparent, yet on that account neither less deeply rooted, nor less

180

MONEY RULES OVER PRINCIPLE.

numerous, and, as regards education, they bear upon it with much greater force than is the case with the poor. The poor child is exposed to much bad example, and accustomed to many evil practices and bad feelings, in the company of his parents; but many of them, so far from being sanctioned by the schoolmaster, are, on the contrary, objects of his reproof, whilst the teacher of rich children, from obvious reasons, vies with the father in all the false tastes, the prejudiced notions, the refined vices, of the respectable part of the community. For I beg it to be recollected that, by vice, we are not to understand merely the habitual gratification of some sensual appetite, but, in general, all the habits of self-gratification, mental and moral as well as sensual, by which we are enslaved. And how many are they!

But, many as they are, there is not one of them which is not admitted, nay, called in, purposely, to a large share of influence in education, according to the degree of its prominence in those classes of society to which the children belong. Hence there are not, in the education of the rich, as in that of the poor, a few leading systems; but as many as there are shades of character in different parties, in different ranks, and different avocations, so many are there different systems of education for the children of those who can, by virtue of their purse, command the principles, on which their children are to be brought up. The only schools for the wealthier classes in this country, which are independent of the control of the parents, are those immediately governed by the Establishment, that is to say, the Universities, and Collegiate Schools. Their subalterns, the grammar schools, are already obliged to be obedient to the word of a father, and to gain credit and support by eyeservice to the parents. The same is the case with the few public institutions, founded by various dissenting denominations, either in a body, or by subscription among their members. On the approbation of the public, whose opinion is materially influenced by that of the parents, the

SCHOOLMASTERS THE SLAVES OF PARENTS. 181

very existence of those schools depends; and it is, therefore, not to be expected of them, that they will make a stand against public prejudices. And as regards, lastly, the common run of day and boarding-schools, it is well known that they are as much, as any shopkeepers, obliged to gratify the tastes, and satisfy the wishes, of their cus tomers; and that, even if some establishments have risen into such popularity, as to render it truly difficult to insure places in them, this enables them no more to resist and combat the prevailing prejudices, than the most fashionable shop in the metropolis has it in its power, to abolish all the fanciful fashions, and to introduce a plain and simple dress. Their high popularity is founded upon the opinion, that by them the public taste will be gratified more than anywhere else; but let it, for a moment, be suspected that there is a design radically to reform that taste, or merely to correct and purify it, and all the popularity will be gone in an instant. Nowhere is there a more extensive application made of the maxim, "Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur," that is to say, in education: The vanity and folly of the parents will be flattered, therefore let us flatter them. And although the weakness of the parents, and the servility of schoolmasters, has been fully explored, and although they heartily despise one another, yet the practical language of a father, when putting his child to school, is still: "I want to be deceived,—I want to be flattered;" and the schoolmaster's answer is no less, 66 You may rely upon it, it shall be done, in general matters, on the usual terms, and in special matters, at so much extra."

But although there are great differences in the position, in which the various institutions stand to the parents, yet, as regards the children, it is to be feared, that the leading features of their education are much the same everywhere. I say, the leading features; there are abuses in one place, which do not exist in another; one is more accessible than the other to the so styled improvements of the age; but

182

AMBITION A SANCTIONED PRINCIPLE.

with all this, the ruling principles of society, are the ruling principles in them all; and hence it is that, in spite of the diversity of creeds, of feelings, and of interests, they have their leading features all in common.

name.

Where, for instance, is the school in this country, from which the principle of ambition is banished? From the aristocratic seats of learning, where the fellow-commoner, with the gold laced coat, is publicly acknowledged to be above the law, to which his humbler fellow-student must submit, down to the lowest description of "Classical and Commercial Academies," and "Boarding-schools for Young Gentlemen," the principle of ambition is used as a stimulus for the performance of what is in each place called duty, and is, in numberless exhortations, enlarged upon, as the noblest feeling of the human breast, as the master key to wealth and power, to honour and immortality of The head of a college will tell the young duke that, without ambition, no great statesman was ever formed; and so does the commercial schoolmaster tell his boys, that never a man got on in business, who had no ambition in his soul. But whilst they thus all talk of ambition, none of them ever takes it into his head, to ask himself the plain question-which, as Christians, they are bound to ask concerning every thing,-the question, whether it be of God, or of the world. For, if it be of God, it is proper that it should not be desecrated, by being turned into a means for the attainment of success in business, or of political grandeur; and if it be of the world, it is meet that they should teach their pupils to keep themselves unspotted from it. That selfish spirit, however, which presides over our education, only asks what is likely to be conducive to comfort or gratification; and, spurning the idea of having recourse to first principles, it takes ambition as a fact, a phenomenon, of our moral existence, which, as it proves to be a good tool for a variety of purposes, has thereby given satisfactory evidence of its intrinsic value. And shall this evidence be deemed satis

ITS TRUE NATURE EXAMINED.

183

factory for ever? Shall it never be inquired, whether the feeling which we thus cultivate in our children, as the mainspring of their actions, is, or is not, consistent with the Christian character? Surely it is time, that such an inquiry should be instituted, after we have gone on in Pagan blindness for centuries.

Ambition, when closely examined, seems to me to be nothing else, but an excrescence of emulation: it is the wish to attain an eminence over others; in business, or in politics, behind the counter, or in the pulpit-wherever it be, it is the wish to excel, to be the greatest among many. That this wish is anti-christian, is as clear as that Christianity is a doctrine of humility and of brotherly love; and it only remains for us to examine, what difference there is between this ambition, and the emulation of charity schools. I have remarked before, that the vices by which the wealthier classes are corrupted, are essentially the same as those by which the education of the poor is blasted; the only difference being, that, in the schools for the rich, there is greater scope for the operation of every bad principle. Of the truth of that remark, the present subject affords a striking illustration; for, whilst it is quite plain, that as far as the principle is concerned, namely, the desire of excelling others, ambition and emulation are one and the same thing; it appears, that in the schools for the poor, that bad feeling is confined to the moment when it is excited, or, until the reward is given, and, at all events, never reaches beyond the time of education, or even beyond school hours; whereas the principle of ambition, which is inculcated by word and practice in the schools for the rich, connects the boyish strife for superiority with all the prospects of after life, and throws the value of a whole existence into the balance against humility and charity. It is no light matter to think, that every exertion of a young man has for its motive the exaltation of his own self, that all his thoughts and feelings, all the tendencies of his being, are concentrated upon this one object; that he considers his