No More Learning

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? ^4 to
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
Charles Eliot Norton
1827-1908
?
From his Children
Richard Norton, Sara Norton, Rupert Norton
Eliot Norton, Margaret Norton
Elizabeth Gaskell Norton
November 16, 1927
GIVEN ON THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF PROFESSOR NORTON'S BIRTH
NOVEMBER l6, I927, BY
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? 5
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? FRANK;
A
SEQUEL TO FRANK
IN
EARLY LESSONS.
BY
MARIA EDGEWORTH.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
THE SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR R. HUNTER,
72,. si. Paul's churchyard ; and
BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY,
PATERNOSTER row.
1825.
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? HARVARD CCLLE3r LIEFMW
Fro;'. tii: ramily cf
CFUSLCS ELLIOT NORTON
NOVEMBER 16. 1927
tONDON: ^ . b
PRINTED BY CHARLES WOOB'r i
Poppin's Court, F. eet Street.
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? P RE FACE
TO PARENTS.
" NOW look on him, whose very voice, in tone,
Just echoes thine; whose features are thine own;
And stroke his polish'd cheek of purest red,
And lay thine hand upon his flaxen head,
And say, ' My boy, th' unwelcome hour is come,
When thou, transplanted from thy genial home,
Must find a colder soil and bleaker air,
And trust for safety to a stranger's care. '
-- Thou would'st not, deaf to Nature's tenderest
plea,
Turn him adrift upon a rolling sea;
Nor say. Go hither '. conscious that there lay
A brood of asps, or quicksands, in his way.
Then, only govern'd by the self-same rule
Of natural pity, send him not to school. "
How these lines must strike any affection-
ate parent, who is going to send a boyjto
school! Yet, when the first effect of the flash
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? IV
PREFACK.
and stroke of eloquence passes away, as the
mind subsides to calm, we question whether
the danger be real or imaginary. The com-
mon reflection, that most of the great men
of England have been educated at public
schools, recurs to the father and mother, or
is suggested to them by some friend of the
family, who has himself been brought up in
one of our great seminaries. They listen,
and are persuaded, if not convinced; for
those, who are most readily alarmed by elo-
quence, are most easily relieved by assertion :
ashamed of having been moved too far in
the moment of alarm, they go directly to the
contrary extreme of rash security. They
laugh at the poetic peril of asps and quick-
sands, neglect to examine into the nature
of the real danger, and dismiss at once all
fear of the simile, and all care for the truth.
It is to be desired, that, on a subject of so
much importance to their children and them-
selves, parents might feel something more than
the evanescent effect of eloquence, and might
be excited to a serious examination of the facts.
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? PREFACE.
v
But even those, who do not content themselves
with a mere dramatic start, or sentimental
exclamation, and who are seriously aware of
the danger, imagine, that the evils, if not
necessary, are unavoidable. It must be suf- '
ficiently obvious, even to the most zealous
friends of private education, that, from
various circumstances of inexpediency and
impossibility, vast numbers of children can-
not be bred up at home; they must go to
school, and to some of the seminaries which
exist.
When it comes to the usual age for send-
ing the boy from home, this sense of neces-
sity presses upon the father and mother:
they think, that all they can do is to choose
for their son the school of which they hear the
best character: they know all have their
faults; they are sorry for it, but they cannot
help it; whatever these faults may be, the
individual parent cannot rectify them at the
moment his boy is to go to school; and be-
cause they cannot do every thing they are
content to do nothing. They submit with
a3
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? vi
PREFACE.
indolent resignation to the plea of necessity,
consoling themselves with the sophisms of
common-place philosophy.
They tell you, or they tell themselves, that
if the power of new modelling our institutions
were put into the hands of any of those who
wish for their reform, they might not be able
to satisfy themselves or others in the execu-
tion of new plans; that in the hurry and zeal
of innovation they might run from evils that
we know, to those we know not of. These
considerations, obvious as they are, may
afford some comfort under the impos-
sibility of sudden change, and may recon-
cile us to the slow operations of time and
truth, acting as they do irresistibly together.
Though it cannot be hoped, that, by any com-
bination of opinion and effort, a perfect
school, such as anxious parentsiwould desire,
can, in our days, or perhaps ever, be realized,
yet continual advances towards excellence
may be made. e ?
But, in the mean time, there is something
which every parent can do, something more
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? PREFACE.
vii
safe than sudden innovation; more manly,
more becoming, more useful than indulgence
in idle declamation or indolent despair.
Every father, every mother, can, by prepa-
ratory care, direct the home education of
their boys before they send them to school.
Every parent can, by this preparatory care,
easily do that, which it is not in the power
of any schoolmaster to effect, however able
or zealonsi' t 'u iii_. -'
For, picture to yourself a perfect school-
master--Unless he be endowed with the gifts
of ubiquity and omniscience, unless he nei-
ther sleep nor nod, he cannot always see,
or always know, what is going on among the
hundreds assembled under his tuition; he
can make only general regulations, and en-
force obedience to these ; but he has no time
for individual inspection; he cannot attend
to the habits of each boy's understanding or
temper, > nor adapt his moral instruction to
the cure of his defects. Yet this is expected,
and more: he is expected to correct, in a
few months, perhaps, all the faults, all the
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? Vli PREFACE.
bad habits, which boys may have acquired
during the eight or tenTprevious years of their
life.
Parents sometimes seem to consider a
schoolmaster as a magician, who can accom-
plish every wish, however extravagant; who
can confer every moral gift, and every intel-
lectual talent.
Sending a boy to school is by such parents
considered as a remedy for every evil. Is
their boy indolent? Oh, send him to school,
aud he will become active. Is he headstrong ?
No matter, his temper will be cured at school.
Is he bashful? He will become confident
enough at a public school. Is he selfish?
He will become generous. Is he cowardly 1
He will become brave. Above all, he will
learn to be manly ; every boy becomes manly
at school. But he has no habits of applica-
tion, order, or truth. No matter, he will
learn them all when he goes to school; it is
his master's business to teach him these. He
does not know, perhaps, how to write, or to
read, or to spell, or to speak his mother tongue
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? PREFACE.
ix
correctly. But it is his schoolmaster's busi-
ness to teach him: why should he be teazed
with these things at home X His parents may
indulge him and spoil him as much as they
please ; it is the business of that devoted be-
ing, of that martyr, a schoolmaster, to do and
to suffer all that parents themselves cannot
do or suffer. Without pleading in his favour
(for who would undertake so unpopular a
cause ?
), it may be prudent, on the part of
parents, to consider, whether, if their sons
afterwards should disappoint their expecta-
tions, should turn out blockheads or spend-
thrifts, should throw away their fortunes at
the gaming table, or their lives in disgrace-
ful connections or ill-assorted marriages'
should make their hearts ache for many a long
year, and bring their grey hairs with sorrow
to the grave, it would be a sufficient consola-
tion, or quieting to their conscience, to throw
the blame upon the negligence of the school-
roaster, and the vices of our public institu-
tions. . i<< , . . . . . . . i. i
It is the object of the present little book,
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? X
PREFACE.
not only to contribute to the amusement and
advantage of children, but to point out by
what means every father, and still more every
mother, may, by care in the previous educa-
tion of their children at home, guard in a
great measure against the danger which they
fear at school; and by what means they may
give to their boys the greatest chance of se-
curing every advantage to be hoped from
public education.
The following volumes contain the His-
tory of Frank from seven years old, where
we left him, till between ten and eleven.
From the time his father determined to send
him to a public school, this preparatory
education appears to commence.
It is by no means presumed, that the
course here followed is the best, or the only
course possible. A thousand different roads
may be taken, that will lead to the same end.
Provided that the great object be kept stea-
dily in view, every one may please himself
in the choice of a path.
The great object is to give your son
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? PREFACE.
M
good principles, and to teach him to abide by
his resolutions. It is a mistake to suppose,
that resolution can be exercised only upon
great occasions, or in matters of consequence.
The habit of self-control can be formed by
daily, gradual exercise in early childhood;
and it is by attention to this, that a fond and
judicious mother may prepare her child with
resolution to resist all the new temptations
which may occur when he shall leave her
guardian care. This is to be done, not by
teazing him with admonition upon every
slight occasion, but by inspiring in his own
mind the wish to control himself.
Usually, the first ambition of a school-boy
is to be thought manly. Manly! How
many boys and men have been destroyed by
the false ideas annexed to this word! Folly,
frolic, extravagance, passion, violence, bru-
tality, every excess, every vice, seek shelter
from infamy, and too often find it under
this imposing word. Thousands of fine boys,
the finest, of the highest spirit, of the best
talent, the most generous disposition, have
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? xii
PREFACE.
been ruined by their false conceptions of this
single word. The first danger a boy has to
encounter, at a public school, is from this
word, manly. He hears that it is manly to
do whatever is done by boys older and taller,
not wiser, than himself. He is in the first
place laughed at for having been bred up at
home; ridiculed for all that he has been
taught to think right at home; taught that
it is manly to throw off home restraint, and to
resist home influence. Even while his affec-
tion for his friends remains undiminished he
is taught to be ashamed to show it; and
he is led to set at nought the opinion and
advice of fathers, mothers, brothers, and
sisters, because his schoolfellows call this
being manly and independent. This first
step in error leads necessarily to others more
dangerous: first, he is afraid of being thought
a child; next, of being thought a milksop.
First the influence of parents, next the con-
trol of masters, must be set at defiance ; then
every sort of restraint, moral and religious,
must be conquered : he must drink, he must
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? PREFACE.
xiii
game; he must get in debt, he must lie
to conceal his debt from his parents, he must
practise every species of falsehood and mean-
ness, to do as others do, who call themselves
manly, independent, spirited.
Parents, if you would prevent your sons
from setting at nought your influence, if you
would save your sons from destruction, moral
and worldly, give them, before you send
them to a public school, just ideas of what
is, or ought to be, meant by a manly charac-
ter. But can this be done so early 1 Yes,
it can. Mothers, when first you see the
infant ambition to be manly break forth in
your boys, smile upon it, encourage it, but
mark that you guide it well. Your boy
first shows himself eager to excel his com-
panions in bodily strength and agility. He
is proud to be able to walk, to run, to
wrestle, to ride, better than boys a little
older, or perhaps a little taller than himself,
and you praise him for being manly; and
this is all well, provided it be not done
in the mere spirit of imitation ; but if once
vol. I. h
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? siv
PREFACE.
you let that spirit rule, without reference
to what is good in itself, you will repent it as
surely as you and your children live. Teach
your son the truth, that manly exercises
are useful in themselves, as part of a manly
character, but not the whole. Teach him,
that to be manly, strength of mind is still
more essential than strength of body. Teach
him, that it is only the weak, who require the
support of numbers to prove to them that
they are in the right. Teach your son, that
manly strength of character is shown in
abiding by his conviction, and his resolution;
in defying ridicule, and in resisting all that is
wrong in every shape.
High sounding words ! too high, it may
perhaps be thought, for children to feel
or understand. No; try them, and you will
find that these sentiments are not above their
comprehension. When once the infant
thought has been touched with this noble
feeling, this generous ambition, the main point
of education is secure. Rest your hope,
and his own hopes of himself, firmly on
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? PREFACE.
XV
this desire and effort to improve. Do not
wear out his sensibility of conscience, by
teaching that slight deviations are irre-
parable ; for by this you will either make
your boy despair of himself, or teach him
to be an hypocrite.
Few can, or will, or ought, perhaps,
to give up so much of their time and attention
as Frank's father and mother did to their
son. The details of what was done by them
are given, not as models of imitation, but
as modes of illustrating general principles:
as hints, which the understanding and
affection of parents will easily apply in
varying circumstances. It is impossible to
mark the differences without knowing each
peculiar case. All that can be dope is to
give the example of a child, who probably
resembles in the principal points a large
proportion of boys of his age.
It will be observed, by those who were
formerly acquainted with Frank, and who
are kind enough to retain any recollection of
his early history, that he is become, we will
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? PREFACE.
not say more conceited, that is a harsh word,
but more fond of praise, than when we
parted from him last. In this tendency
to vanity he will be found, probably, to
resemble most vivacious boys of his age, who
have been educated, as he unfortunately was,
without any but female companions at home.
Some other faults have likewise broken
out in him, which are likely to be the result
of anxious private education. There are
two classes of parents to be considered, those
who are too careless, and those who are too
anxious. To the careless we have said
enough, we hope, to arouse them to atten-
tion : but the fault of the present day is too
much anxiety concerning details. Parents
and private tutors are not only too eager
to adopt every new receipt for teaching
much in a short time, but are also too easily
alarmed by every deficiency which they
perceive in their pupils, and draw too readily
evil auguries from every trifle. They are so
anxious to make their pupils go on, and
go right, and go straight, every instant, that
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? PREFACE.
they deprive them of the power of acting,
thinking, feeling for themselves. Thus they
turn them either into helpless puppets, who
must cease to move, or fall when the guiding
strings are no longer pulled; or, if they
be not reduced to this automaton state, they
become restive, wilful creatures, who, the
instant they are at liberty, set off in a
contrary direction to that in which they have
been forced.
Frank's father and mother are not wholly
free from this over anxiety, inseparable,
perhaps, from tender parental affection ; but
it appears, that they are conscious of its
danger, and endeavour, as far as human
nature will permit, to counteract its effects.
Their errors may, perhaps, be more useful
to parents than all their sense or their
exertions. In the chief points they can
scarcely lead astray those who may most
actively follow their example; nor is that
example calculated to throw the most timid
into despair. Without limiting to a par-
ticular course of lessons, they excite their
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? PREFACE.
boy to acquire that knowledge, which it
is most necessary for him to attain before he
goes to school; and as to the rest they are
content with inspiring him with that general
love of literature, which they know will
make him continue to read and improve him-
self, when he is left to his own guidance.
Without too rigid morality, they uniformly
press the great principles of right and wrong,
and endeavour to educate a conscience, that
shall neither be too tender nor too callous.
They try by all means to give Frank self-
control and self-command; knowing, that
if he obtain these he will have the best
chance of being able to resist temptation, in
whatever circumstances he may be placed;
and they leave much to a large chapter,
which has been forgotten in most modern
systems of education -- the chapter of ac-
cidents.
All this can surely be done by every
parent who really wishes it, and without any
pedantry of system, or apparatus of discipline
and masters : as the most classically eloquent
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? PREFACE. XIX
of modern moralists has observed, in a cotri-
prehensive essay on the question of " What
is Education 1"
"It is not necessary to devote to the
education of one child, the talents and the
time of a number of grown men, to surround
him with an artificial world, and to coun-
teract by maxims the natural tendencies of
the situation he is placed in, in society.
Every one has time to educate his child;
the poor man educates*him while working in
his cottage, the man of business while em-
ployed in his counting house. "
" Do we see a father, who is diligent
in his profession, domestic in his habits,
whose house is the resort of well-informed,
intelligent people; a mother, whose time
is usefully filled, Whose attention to her
duties secures esteem, and whose amiable
manners attract affection? Do not be
solicitous, respectable couple, about the
moral education of your offspring. Do not
be uneasy because you cannot surround them
with the apparatus of books and systems, or
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? XX
PREFACE.
fancy you must retire from the world to
devote yourself to their improvement. . In
your world they are brought up much better
than they could be under any plan of fac-
titious education which you could provide for
them : they will imbibe affection from your
caresses, taste from your conversation,
urbanity from the commerce of your society,
and mutual love from your example. "
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? FRANK:
A
SEQUEL
TO
EARLY LESSONS.
"Look, my dear Mary, look what my
father has given us," cried Frank, as
he came into the room, carrying a
basket, which was full and heavy.
"What is in it? " said Mary, eagerly
taking off the top of the basket. " Only
little bricks! " said she, disappointed.
" Do not you like little bricks? " said
Frank.
"I do; but from your great joy I
expected something else -- something
VOL. I. B
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? 2 FRANK.
new. You know we have had little
bricks ever since the month after I first
came here, and that is now above a
year ago.