Let a child have ever such an affection for his parent, he will always
languish to play and prattle with children; and the very respect he
feels, for filial esteem always has a dash of fear mixed with it,
will, if it do not teach him cunning, at least prevent him from
pouring out the little secrets which first open the heart to
friendship and confidence, gradually leading to more expansive
benevolence. Added to this, he will never acquire that frank
ingenuousness of behaviour, which young people can only attain by
being frequently in society where they dare to speak what they
think; neither afraid of being reproved for their presumption, nor
laughed at for their folly.
Forcibly impressed by the reflections which the sight of schools, as
they are at present conducted, naturally suggested, I have formerly
delivered my opinion rather warmly in favour of a private education;
but further experience has led me to view the subject in a different
light. I still, however, think schools, as they are now regulated, the
hot-beds of vice and folly, and the knowledge of human nature,
supposed to be attained there, merely cunning selfishness.
At school boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead of
cultivating domestic affections, very early rush into the
libertinism which destroys the constitution before it is formed;
hardening the heart as it weakens the understanding.
I should, in fact, be averse to boarding-schools, if it were for
no other reason than the unsettled state of mind which the expectation
of the vacations produce.
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