TIROCINIUM; OR, A REVIEW OF
SCHOOLS.
Κεφαλαίον δὴ παιδείας ὀρθὴ τροφή. -PLATO.
̓Αρχὴ πολιτείας ἁπάσης, νέων τροφά. - DIOG. LAERT.
To the Rev. William Cawthorne Unwin, Rector of Stock in Essex, the tutor of his two sons, the following poem, recommending private tuition in preference to an education at school, is inscribed, by his affectionate friend, WILLIAM COWPER.
Man's supremacy over the inferior creation not derived from his outward form, but from the soul, 1-Creation in vain, unless subservient to the purposes of an immortal being, 35-Heavenly truth not difficult to discover, 73Man made to discover and declare it, 100-Duty of making it known to the young, 103-Importance of infant instruction, 109-Nursery knowledge, 127-Pilgrim's Progress, 131-Happy if such studies were approved in riper years, 147-Too often scorned and repudiated, 155-The gospel contemned, false philosophy prevails, and early religious impressions are effaced, 185-Corrupting influence of large schools, 201-Effects of pernicious example on the young, 220-College, 240-Errors in education arise from following established precedents, 255-Teachers connive at vices in the young which they practised themselves, 269Degeneracy of schools, 279-Causes of this, 290-Early school associations, 296-Parents recounting their early follies to their children, 318Advancement in the world expected from friendships formed at school, 393-Prosecuted by unworthy means, and tending to fatal results, 404School friendships not always permanent, 436-Emulation a questionable motive of action, 458-Its evil consequences on the heart and temper, 470 -Great and small schools alike, 515-Beauty of parental confidence and companionship, 537 Why resign the task of parental instruction to strangers? 551-The effect of absence in destroying confidence between father and son, 561-A faithful hand necessary to disperse the follies of youth, 591-The classics not enough, 605-Study of nature, 630-A private tutor recommended, 658-Danger of association with servants,
688-A worthy tutor to be treated with respect, 706-Where there is bad example at home, board in some retired spot recommended, 735The author's advice not likely to be followed, 779- The middle ranks addressed on the disorders which prevail in the world as the result of school-breeding, 807-Earnestly warned against committing their sons to schools, 871-Which should be "better managed or encouraged less," 922.
IT is not from his form, in which we trace
Strength join'd with beauty, dignity with grace,
That Man, the master of this globe, derives
His right of empire over all that lives.
That form, indeed, the associate of a mind
Vast in its powers, ethereal in its kind-
That form, the labour of Almighty skill,
Framed for the service of a freeborn will,
Asserts precedence, and bespeaks control,
But borrows all its grandeur from the soul.
Hers is the state, the splendour, and the throne,
An intellectual kingdom, all her own.
For her the Memory fills her ample page
With truths pour'd down from every distant age;
For her amasses an unbounded store,
The wisdom of great nations, now no more;
Though laden, not encumber'd with her spoil;
Laborious, yet unconscious of her toil;
When copiously supplied, then most enlarged;
Still to be fed, and not to be surcharged.
For her, the Fancy roving unconfined,
The present Muse of every pensive mind,
Works magic wonders, adds a brighter hue
To Nature's scenes than Nature ever knew:
At her command, winds rise and waters roar,
Again she lays them slumbering on the shore ;
With flower and fruit the wilderness supplies,
Or bids the rocks in ruder pomp arise.
For her, the Judgment, umpire in the strife
That Grace and Nature have to wage through life,
Quick-sighted arbiter of good and ill,
Appointed sage preceptor to the Will,
Condemns, approves, and, with a faithful voice,
Guides the decision of a doubtful choice.
Why did the fiat of a God give birth
To yon fair Sun and his attendant Earth?
And, when descending he resigns the skies,
Why takes the gentler Moon her turn to rise,
Whom Ocean feels through all his countless waves,
And owns her power on every shore he laves?
Why do the Seasons still enrich the year,
Fruitful and young as in their first career ?
Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees,
Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze ;
Summer in haste the thriving charge receives
Beneath the shade of her expanded leaves,
Till Autumn's fiercer heats and plenteous dews
Dye them at last in all their glowing hues.-
'Twere wild profusion all, and bootless waste,
Power misemploy'd, munificence misplaced,
Had not its Author dignified the plan,
And crown'd it with the majesty of Man.
Thus form'd, thus placed, intelligent, and taught,
Look where he will, the wonders God has wrought,
The wildest scorner of his Maker's laws
Finds in a sober moment time to pause,
To press the important question on his heart,
"Why form'd at all, and wherefore as thou art?"
If man be what he seems, this hour a slave,
The next mere dust and ashes in the grave;
Endued with reason only to descry
His crimes and follies with an aching eye;
With passions, just that he may prove, with pain,
The force he spends against their fury vain ;
And if, soon after having burnt, by turns,
With every lust with which frail Nature burns,
His being end where death dissolves the bond,
The tomb take all, and all be blank beyond;
Then he, of all that Nature has brought forth,
Stands self-impeach'd the creature of least worth,
And, useless while he lives, and when he dies,
Brings into doubt the wisdom of the skies.
Truths that the learn'd pursue with eager thought
Are not important always as dear-bought,
Proving at last, though told in pompous strains,
A childish waste of philosophic pains;
But truths on which depends our main concern,
That 'tis our shame and misery not to learn,
Shine by the side of every path we tread
With such a lustre, he that runs may read.
'Tis true that, if to trifle life away
Down to the sunset of their latest day,
Then perish on futurity's wide shore
Like fleeting exhalations, found no more,
Were all that Heaven required of humankind,
And all the plan their destiny design'd,
What none could reverence all might justly blame,
And man would breathe but for his Maker's shame.
But Reason heard, and Nature well perused,
At once the dreaming mind is disabused.
If all we find possessing earth, sea, air,
Reflect His attributes who placed them there,
Fulfil the purpose, and appear design'd
Proofs of the wisdom of the all-seeing Mind,
'Tis plain the creature whom he chose to invest With kingship and dominion o'er the rest,
Received his nobler nature, and was made
Fit for the power in which he stands array'd;
That first or last, hereafter if not here,
He too might make his Author's wisdom clear,
Praise him on earth, or, obstinately dumb,
Suffer his justice in a world to come.
This once believed, 'twere logic misapplied
To prove a consequence by none denied,
That we are bound to cast the minds of youth
Betimes into the mould of heavenly truth,
That, taught of God, they may indeed be wise,
Nor, ignorantly wandering, miss the skies.
In early days the conscience has in most
A quickness, which in later life is lost :
Preserved from guilt by salutary fears,
Or, guilty, soon relenting into tears.
Too careless often, as our years proceed,
What friends we sort with, or what books we read,
Our parents yet exert a prudent care
To feed our infant minds with proper fare ;
And wisely store the nursery by degrees
With wholesome learning, yet acquired with ease.
Neatly secured from being soil'd or torn,
Beneath a pane of thin translucent horn,
A book (to please us at a tender age
'Tis call'd a book, though but a single page)
Presents the prayer the Saviour deign'd to teach,
Which children use, and parsons-when they preach.
Lisping our syllables, we scramble next
Through moral narrative, or sacred text ;
And learn with wonder how this world began,
Who made, who marr'd, and who has ransom'd man : Points which, unless the Scripture made them plain, The wisest heads might agitate in vain.
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