Part 6

When the question is _how much_ a woman ought to learn, the answer may be, “as much as shall be needful,” and if this is doubtful also, the reply may be, either as much as befits what her parents hope to obtain for her, if their position be humble, or as much as is in keeping with the prospects naturally belonging to their rank, if that rank be high. If the parents be of good standing, and the daughters have special aptitudes, these may be successfully cultivated, so that the young maidens are very soon commended to right honourable matches in which their accomplishments will be seemly and serviceable, benefitting perhaps the commonwealth as well as their own families. If the parents be of humble rank, and the maidens in their education show from the very first some special gifts that offer good promise, even with natural progress, there is ground for hope that their unusual qualities may bring them to some great match. Doubtless this hope may fail, for great personages have not always the good judgment, nor young maidens the good fortune, that would lead to such a result, yet in any case the maidens would remain the gainers, for they at least have their gifts to comfort their mediocre station, and those great personages lose from the lack of judgment to set forth their nobility.

What Higher Studies are Suitable.

Carrying the education further may consist either in perfecting the four studies already mentioned, reading well, writing neatly, singing sweetly, and playing finely, to such an unusual degree, that though the things are but ordinary, special excellence in them may bring more than ordinary admiration, or else in acquiring skill in languages in addition to the above, so that the abundance of gifts may cause yet more wonder.

I fear women would have little turn for geometry or the sister sciences, nor would I make them mathematicians, except in so far as they study music, nor lawyers to plead at the bar, nor physicians, though skill in herbs has been much commended in women, nor would I have them profess divinity, to preach in pulpits, though they must practice it as virtuous livers. Philosophy would help them in general discourse, if they had leisure to study it, but the knowledge of some tongues, either as the vehicle of deeper learning, or for their immediate uses, may well be wished for them, and all those powers also that belong to the furniture of speech. If I should allow them the pencil to draw, as well as the pen to write, and thereby entitle them to all my elementary studies, I might have good reasons to give. For young maidens are ready enough to take to it, and it would help to beautify their needlework.

And is not a young gentlewoman, think you, thoroughly well equipped who can read distinctly, write neatly and swiftly, sing sweetly, and play and draw well, understand and speak the learned languages, as well as the modern tongues approved by her time and country, and who has some knowledge of logic and rhetoric, besides the information acquired in her study of foreign languages? If in addition to all this she be an honest woman and a good housewife, would she not be worth wishing for and worth enshrining? And is it likely that her children will be one whit the worse brought up?

Who should be their Teachers.

The only other question in regard to young maidens is where, and under whom, they should learn, and this depends on how long their studies can extend, which is generally till they are about thirteen or fourteen years old.

Those who are able to continue longer have their time and place suitably appointed, according to the circumstances of their parents. As for their teachers, their own sex were fittest in some respects, but ours frame them best, and with good regard to some circumstances, will bring them up excellently well, especially if the parents co-operate by exercising a wise control over them. The greater-born ladies and gentlemen, as they are to enjoy the benefit of this education most, so they have the best means of prosecuting it, being able to secure the best teachers, and not being limited in time. And so I take my leave of young maidens and gentlewomen, to whom I wish as well as I have said well of them.

The Education of Young Gentlemen.

Under my last heading I set forth at large how young maidens were to be advanced in learning according to their rank, which methought was very incident to my purpose, because they are counterbranches to us as mortal and reasonable creatures, and also because they are always our mates, and may sometimes, according to law and birth, be our mistresses. Now, considering that they are always closely connected with us, and sometimes exceed us in dignity of position, as they share with us all qualities, and all honours even up to the sceptre, why should they not also share in our training and education, so that they may perform well the part which they have to play, whether it be in a position of equality with us, or sovereignity above us? Here now ensueth another question of great importance in regard to the kind of people who are to be dealt with, the question of a class whose position is always in the superlative, and of whom great things are expected, though sometimes by their own fault they forfeit their chances, and hand them over to others whom nature ennobles through their inborn virtues--I mean young gentlemen of all ranks up to the crown itself. It is the custom among those of good birth to prefer to have their sons educated privately at home rather than at school. This is reasonable enough for maidens because of their sex, but young gentlemen should be educated publicly, that they may have the benefit of mixing with others, as has been the custom in all the best ordered commonwealths, and has been recommended by all the most learned writers, even in the case of princes.

Private and Public Education.

What is the import of these two words ‘private education’? _Private_ is that which hath respect in all circumstances to some particular case; _public_ in all circumstances regardeth every one alike. _Education_ is the bringing up of one, not to live alone, but amongst others, because company is our natural medium; whereby he shall be best able to perform all those functions in life which his position shall require, whether public or private, in the interest of his country in which he was born, and to which he owes his whole service. All these functions are in reality public, and concern everyone, even when they seem most private, because individual ends must be adjusted to wider social ends; and yet people give the preference to private education where all the circumstances are peculiar to one learner; as if he who was brought up alone were always to live alone, or as if one should say, ‘I will have you to deal with all, but never to see all; your end shall be public, but your means shall be private.’ How can education be private? It is an abuse of the name as well as of the thing. This isolation, for a pretended advantage in education, of those who must afterwards pass on together, is very mischievous, as it allows every parent to follow out his own whims, relying on the privacy of his own house to be free from criticism, on the subserviency of the teacher whom he may choose to suit his own purposes, and on the submission of his child who is bound to obey him on pain of meeting his displeasure. In public schools such swerving from what is generally approved is impossible. The master is always in the public eye, what he teaches is known to all; the child is not alone, and he learns only what has been submitted to the judgment of the community. Whatever inconveniences may be inseparable from schools, still greater arise in private education. It puffs up the recluse with pride; it is an enemy to sympathy between those who have unequal opportunities; it fosters self-conceit in the absence of comparison with others; it encourages contempt in the superior, and envy in the inferior. This kind of education which soweth the seed of dissension by discovering differences, where the fruits of a common upbringing should be seen in the firm knitting of social bonds, should be discouraged owing to its effect in instilling the poison of spite. Certainly the thing doth naturally tend this way, though its influence may be often interrupted in time by the pressure of public opinion. But if the child turn out better then I have forecast, and show himself courteous, it will be due to his natural goodness, or to his experience outside, not to the kind of education which brings no such courtesy, though the child may see it in his parents, and read of it in his books. Sometimes it maketh him too sheepishly bashful when he comes to the light, owing to his being unaccustomed to company. More commonly, however, he is too childishly bold through noting nothing except what he breeds in his own mind in his solitary training, where he thinks only of himself, and has none to control him, not even his master, whatever show there may be of obedience to authority in this private cloistering. Surely it is reasonable for one in his childhood to become acquainted with other children, seeing he has to live with them as men in his manhood. Is it good for the ordinary man to be brought up on a well-regulated public system, and not good for the man of higher position? By ‘private’ I do not mean what is done at home for public uses--in that case almost everything might be called private--but what is kept at home by preference, in order to serve the better the interest of a particular individual. It would seem to be generally a question not of the matter or the method of education, but of the select privacy of the place where it is given. I must beg leave to say that the results are in favour of public training, which from the midst of mediocrity brings up scholars of such excellence that they take a worthy place in all ranks, even next to the highest, whereas private education with all its advantages of wealth, doth rarely show anything in learning and judgment above bare mediocrity. There is no comparison between the two kinds, if prejudice be set aside. If the privately-taught pupil chance to come to speak, it mostly falleth out dreamingly, because seclusion in education is a punishment to the tongue; and in teaching a language to exclude companions to speak to, is like seeking to quench thirst, yet closing the mouth so that no moisture can get in. If such a pupil come to write, it is lean, and nothing but skin, betraying the great pains the master hath had to take, in default of any helping circumstances through the pupil’s intercourse with companions. The boy can but repeat what he hears, and he hears only one person who, though he knew everything, cannot say much, for he hath no sufficient audience to provoke him to utterance. If the master made an effort to deliver himself of anything weighty, methinks an unobserved listener would hear a strange discourse, and would find the boy asleep; or, if he had a companion, playing with his hands or feet under the table, with one eye on his talking master and the other on his playmate.

But why is private education so much in vogue? There may be some excuse for those of very high position, especially for the prince himself, who standing alone, cannot well mix with his subjects, and must do what he can to surpass them without this advantage. Yet if even the greatest could have his education so arranged that he might have the company of a good choice number, wherein to see all the differences of capacity and learn to judge of all, as he hath afterwards to deal with all, would it be any sacrilege? But why do the gentry in this respect rather ape their superiors in rank, than follow the class below, who are really liker to them, and who form the chief supporters of the State? To have the child learn better manners and have more virtuous surroundings! As bad at home as outside; evil manners are brought into school, not bred there. To avoid the distraction of large numbers? The child shall notice the more, and so prove the wiser, the multitude of examples offering the means of sound judgment. Nay, in a number, though he find some undesirable, whom he should avoid, he shall find many apt and industrious, whom to follow. In school, moreover, he shall perceive that vice is punished, and virtue praised, as needs must where all is done in the public view. Is it to keep the child in health by making him bide at home, for fear of infection outside? Death is within doors also, and dainties at home have destroyed more children than dangers outside. Is it from affection, because ye cannot bear to let the child out of your presence? That is too foolish. Emulation is a great inspirer of virtue. If your child do well at home alone, how much better would he do with company? It quickens the spirits, and enlivens the whole nature, to have to compete with others--to have perhaps one companion ahead of him to follow and learn from, another below him to teach and vaunt over, and a third of his own standing with whom to strive for praise of forwardness.

To sum up this question, I do take public education to be better than private, as being more upon the stage, where faults are more readily seen and so are sooner amended, and as being the best means of acquiring both virtue and learning, which flourish according to their first planting. What virtue is private? Wisdom, to foresee what is good for a desert? Courage, to defend where there is no assailant? Temperance, to be modest where there is none to challenge? Justice, to do right when there is none to demand it?

What should a Gentleman learn?

As for the education of gentlemen, at what age shall I suggest that they should begin to learn? Their minds are the same as those of the common people, and their bodies are often worse. The same considerations in regard to time must apply to all ranks. What should they learn? I know of nothing else, nor can I suggest anything better, than what I have already suggested for all. Only young gentlemen must have some special studies that will help them to govern under their prince in positions of trust. They should have always before them the virtues that belong to the government of others, and to the wise direction of their own conduct. However, the general matter of duty being taught to all, each one may apply it to his own particular case, without the need for any special reference outside the ordinary school course, especially seeing that the duties of government just as often fall into the hands of those of lower rank whose virtue and capacity win them promotion. What exercises shall young gentlemen have? The very same as other children. What masters? The same. What difference of arrangements? All one and the same, except where private education is preferred, though, as I have said, they are none the better for the want of good fellowship. And if they are as well taught and as well exercised as should follow from the general plan laid down for all young children, they shall have no cause to complain of public education. For it is no mean stuff which is provided even for the meanest to be stored with.

The children of gentlemen have great advantages, which they may thank God for; they can carry on their education to the end, whereas those of the humbler class have to give it up sooner, and they have many opportunities which are denied to ordinary learners. If they fail to use these advantages aright they are all the more to blame, just as the greater credit is due to those who in spite of hindrances make such advancement that they win the preferments forfeited by the negligence of those to whom they naturally belong.

As for rich men, who not being of gentle birth, but growing to wealth by some means or other, imitate gentlemen in the education of their children, as if money made equality, and the purse were the ground of preferment, without any other consideration, who contemn the lower ranks from which they sprang, and cloister up their children as a support to their position, they are in the same case as regards freedom of choice, but far behind in true gentility. As they were of lower condition themselves, they might with more acceptance continue their children in the same kind of training which brought up the parents and made them so wealthy, and not try to push themselves into a rank too far beyond their humble origin. For of all the means to make a gentleman, money is the most vile. All other means have some sign of virtue, but this is too bad to mate either with high birth, or with great worth. For to become a gentleman is to bear the cognisance of virtue, to which honour is companion; the vilest devices are the readiest means to become most wealthy and ought not to look honour in the face. It may be pretended that intelligence and capacity have enabled them to make their way, but it is not denied that these qualities may be turned to the worst uses, may only once in a thousand times make a gentleman. It is not intelligence that deserves praise, but the matter to which it has been directed, and the manner in which it has been employed. When it is bestowed wisely on the good of the community, it deserveth all praise; if devoted wholly to filling a private purse, without regard to the means, so long as nothing evil is disclosed, then it deserveth no praise for the result, but rather suspicion as to the method of bringing it about. These people in their business will not scruple to bring poverty to thousands, and for giving a penny to one of these thousands they will be accounted charitable. They will give a scholar some pretty exhibition, in order to seem religious, and under a slender veil of counterfeit liberality will hide the spoil of ransacked poverty. And though they do not profess to be impoverishing people of set purpose, yet their kind of dealing doth pierce as it passeth.

But of these kind of folks I intend not to speak. My purpose is to employ my pains upon such as are gentlemen indeed. Yet it is worth that gives name and note to nobility; it is virtue that must endow it, or vice will undo it. As I wish well to this class, so I wish their education to be good, and if it were possible, even better than that of ordinary people. But that cannot be, for the common training, if it be well appointed, is the best and fittest for them, especially as they may have it in full, while those of meaner rank have to be content with it incomplete.

What makes a Gentleman.

Before I enter upon the training of gentlemen and show what is specially suitable for them, I will examine those points which are best got by good education, and being once got do adorn them most, which two considerations are not foreign to my purpose. I must first ask what it is to be a gentleman or a nobleman, and what qualities these terms assume to be present in the persons of those to whom they are applied, and afterwards, what are the causes and uses of gentility, and the reasons why it is so highly thought of.

But ere I begin to deal with any of these points, once for all I must recommend to those of gentle birth exercise of the body, and chiefly such kinds as besides benefiting their health shall best serve their calling and place in their country. Just as those qualities which I have set forth for the general training, being most easily compassed in their perfection by them, may very well beseem a gentlemanly mind, so may the physical exercises without exception be found useful, either to make a healthy body, seeing that our constitution is all the same, or to prepare them for such occupations as belong to their position. Is it not for a gentleman to follow the chase and to hunt? Doth their place reprove them if they have skill to dance? Is skill in sitting a horse no honour at home, no help abroad? Is the use of a weapon suitable to their calling any blemish to them? Indeed those great exercises are most proper to such persons and are not for those of meaner rank.

What is it then to be a nobleman or a gentleman? The people of this country are either gentlemen or of the commonalty. The latter is divided into those who are engaged in trade, and those who work with their hands. Their distinction is by wealth, for some of them, who have enough and more, are called rich men, some who have no more than enough, poor men, and some who have less than enough, beggars. There are also three ranks in gentility, the gentlemen, who are the cream of the common people, the noblemen, who are the flower of gentility, and the prince, who is the primate and pearl of nobility. Their difference is in authority, the prince having most, the nobleman coming next, and the gentlemen under both. To be virtuous or vicious, to be rich or poor, are no peculiar badge of either kind; a gentleman or a common man may alike be virtuous or vicious, rich or poor, with land or without it. But as the gentleman in any position must have the power of exercising his lawful authority there are some virtues that seem to belong to him specially, such as wisdom in policy, valour in execution, justice in forming decisions, modesty in demeanour. Whether gentility come by descent or desert makes no difference; he that giveth fame to his family first, or he that deserveth such honour, or he that adds to his heritage by noble means, is the man whom I mean. He that continueth what he received through descent from his ancestry, by desert in his own person, hath much to thank God for, and doth well deserve double honour among men, as bearing the true coat of arms of the best nobility, when desert for virtue is quartered with descent in blood, seeing that ancient lineage and inheritance of nobility are in such credit among us, and always have been. As gentility argueth a courteous, civil, well-disposed, sociable constitution of mind in a superior degree, so doth nobility imply all these and much more, in a higher rank with greater authority. And do not these distinctive qualities deserve help by good and virtuous education?

Learning useful to Noblemen.

Excellent wisdom, which is the means of advancing grave and politic counsellors, is but a single cause of preferment; likewise valour, which is the means of making a noble and gallant captain, is but a single cause of advancement; but where these two qualities, wisdom and courage, are combined in the same man, the merit is doubled. The means of preferment which depend upon learning are either martial, for war and defence in relation to foreign countries, or political, for peace and tranquillity at home. The warrior seems to depend most on his personal courage and experience, which without any learning or reading at all, have often brought forth excellent leaders, but with those helps in addition produce most rare and famous generals. Those who use the pen most in taking part in the direction of public government, or in filling the necessary offices in the administrative or judicial service of the State, for the common peace and quietness, without profession of further learning, though they have their chief instrument of credit from books, are not debtors to book-knowledge only, because industry, experience, and discretion have much to do with their success. It is those who depend wholly upon learning that I am most concerned with, when I ask how gentlemen should be trained to have them learned.