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
affectation; for we now rarely see a simple, bashful boy, though few
people of taste were ever disgusted by that awkward sheepishness so
natural to the age, which schools and an early introduction into
society, have changed into impudence and apish grimace.
Yet, how can these things be remedied whilst school-masters depend
entirely on parents for a subsistence; and, when so many rival schools
hang out their lures, to catch the attention of vain fathers and
mothers, whose parental affection only leads them to wish that their
children should outshine those of their neighbours?
Without great good luck, a sensible, conscientious man, would starve
before he could raise a school, if he disdained to bubble weak parents
by practising the secret tricks of the craft.
In the best regulated schools, however, where swarms are not crammed
together, many bad habits must be acquired; but, at common schools,
the body, heart, and understanding, are equally stunted, for parents
are often only in quest of the cheapest school, and the master could
not live, if he did not take a much greater number than he could
manage himself; nor will the scanty pittance, allowed for each
child, permit him to hire ushers sufficient to assist in the discharge
of the mechanical part of the business.
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