HOR. EP. 2. L. 2. v. 81

INCE our fuccefs in worldly mat

Ses may re fiaid to depend upon our education, it will be very much to the purpofe to enquire if the foundations of our fortune could not be laid deeper and furer than they are. The education of youth falls of neceffity under the direction of those who, through fondnefs to us and our abilities, as well as to their own unwarrantable conjectures, are very likely to be deceived; and the mifery of it is, that the poor creatures, who are the fufferers upon wrong advances, feldom find out the errors, until they become irretrievable. As the greater number of all degrees and conditions have their education at the Universities, the errors which I conceive to be in thofe places, fall moft naturally under the following obfervations. The firft mifmanagement in thefe public nurferies, is the calling together a number of pupils, of howfoever different ages, views, and capacities, to the fame lectures: but, furely, there can be no reafon to think, that a delicate tender babe, juft weaned from the bofom of his mother, indulged in all the impertinencies of his heart's defire, fhould be equally capable of receiving a lecture of philofophy, with a hardy ruffian of full age, who has been occafionally fcourged through some of the great fchools, groaned under constant rebuke and chaftifement, and maintained a ten years war with literature, under very ftrict and rugged difcipline.

I know the reader has pleafed himself with an answer to this already, viz. That an attention to the particular abilities and defigns of the pupil cannot be expected from the trifling falary paid upon fuch account. The price indeed

POPE.

which is thought a fufficient reward, for

any advantages a youth can receive from a man of learning, is an abominable confideration; the enlarging which, would not only increase the care of tutors, but would be a very great encouragement to fuch as defigned to take this province upon them, to furnish themfelves with a more general and extensive knowledge. As the cafe now stands, thofe of the firft quality pay their tutors but little above half fo much as they do their footmen: what morality, what hiftory, what tafte of the modern languages, what, lastly, that can make a man happy, or great, may not be expected in return for fuch an immenfe treasure. It is monftrous indeed, that the men of the beft eftates and families are more foli citous about the tutelage of a favourite dog or horfe, than of their heirs male. The next evil is the pedantical veneration that is maintained at the University for the Greek and Latin, which puts the youth upon fuch exercises, as many of them are incapable of performing with any tolerable fuccefs. Upon this emergency they are fuccoured by the allowed wits of their respective colleges, who at always ready to befriend them with two or three hundred Latin or Greek words thrown together, with a very small proportion of fenfe.

But the most established error of our Univerfity education, is the general neg. lect of all the little qualifications and accomplishments which make up the character of a well-bred man, and the ge neral attention to what is called deep learning. But as there are very few bleffed with a genius, that fhall force fuccefs by the ftrength of itself alone,

and

and few occafions of life that require the aid of fuch genius; the vast majority of the unblefled fouls ought to store themselves with fuch acquifitions, in which every man has capacity to make a considerable progrefs, and from which every common occation of life may reap great advantage. The perfons that may be useful to us in the making our fortunes, are fuch as are already happy in their own; I may proceed to fay, that the men of figure and family are more fuperficial in their education than thofe of a lefs degree, and, of courfe, are ready to encourage and protect that qualification in another which they themselves are mafters of. For their own application implies the purfuit of fomething commendable; and when they fee their own characters proposed as imitable, they must be won by fuch an irrefiftible flattery. But thofe of the University, who are to make their fortunes by a ready infinuation into the favour of their fuperiors, contemn this necessary foppery fo far, as not to be able to fpeak common fenfe to them, without hesitation, perplexity, and confufion. For want of care in acquiring lefs accomplishments which adorn ordinary life, he that is fo unhappy as to be born poor, is condemned to a method that will very probably keep him fo.

I hope all the learned will forgive me what is faid purely for their fervice, and tends to no other injury againt them, than admonishing them not to overlook fuch little qualifications, as they every day fee defeat their greater excellencies in the purfuit both of reputation and

fortune.

If the youth of the University were to be advanced, according to their fufficiency in the fevere progrefs of learning; or riches could be fecured to men of understanding, and favour to men of fkill;' then indeed all ftudies were folemnly to be defied, that did not seriously purfue the main end: but fince our merit is to be tried by the unfkilful many, we muft gratify the fenfe of the injudicious majority, fatisfying ourselves that the fhame of a trivial qualification fticks only upon him that prefers it to one more fubftantial. The more accomplishments a man is master of, the better is he prepared for a more extended acquaintance; and upon thefe confiderations without doubt, the author of the Italian book called Il Cortegiano, or The Courtier,

makes throwing the bar, vaulting the horfe, nay, even wrestling, with feveral other as low qualifications, neceflary for the man whom he figures for a perfect courtier; for this reason, no doubt, because his end being to find grace in the eyes of men of all degrees, the means to purfue this end, was the furnishing him with fuch real and feeming excellencies as each degree had it's particular tafte of. But thofe of the University, instead of emploving their leifure hours in the purfuit of fuch acquifitions as would shorten their way to better fortune, enjoy thofe moments at certain houfes in the town; or repair to others at very pretty distances out of it, where they drink

and forget their poverty, and remem⚫ber their mifery no more.' Perfons of this indigent education are apt to pafs upon themfelves and others for modeft, efpecially in the point of behaviour; though it is easy to prove, that this miftaken modesty not only arifes from ignorance, but begets the appearance of of it's oppofite, pride: for he that is confcious of his own infufficiency to addrefs his fuperiors without appearing ri-. diculous, is by that betrayed into the fame neglect and indifference towards them, which may bear the conftruction of pride. From this habit they begin to argue against the bafe fubmiffive application from men of letters to men of fortune, and be grieved when they fee, as Ben Johnfon fays

-The learned pate
Duck to the golden fool-

though these are points of neceflity and convenience, and to be efteemed fubmiffions rather to the occafion than to the perfon. It was a fine answer of Diogenes, who being afked in mockery, why philofophers were the followers of rich men, and not rich men of philofophers; replied Becaufe the one knew

what they had need of, and the other did not.' It certainly must be difficult to prove, that a man of business or a profeffion ought not to be what we call a gentleman, but yet very few of them are fo.

Upon this account they have little converfation with those who might do them mott fervice, but upon fuch occa fions only as application is made to them in their particular calling; and for any thing they can do or fay in fuch matters have their reward, and therefore rather receive than confer an obligation: whereCc

as

as he that adds his being agreeable to his being ferviceable, is conftantly in a capacity of obliging others. The character of a beau is, I think, what the men that pretend to learning please themfelves in ridiculing: and yet if we compare thefe perfons as we fee them in pub lic, we fhall find that the lettered coxcombs, without good-breeding, give more juft occafion to raillery, than the unlettered coxcombs with it: as our behaviour falls within the judgment of more perfons than our converfation, and a failure in it is therefore more visible. What pleasant victories over the loud, the faucy, and the illiterate, would attend the men of learning and breeding; which qualifications, could we but join them, would beget fuch a confidence, as,

arifing from good fenfe and good na ture, would never let us oppreis others, or defert ourselves. In fhort, whether a man intends a life of business or pleafure, it is impoffible to pursue either in an elegant manner, without the help of good breeding. I fhall conclude with the face at leaft of a regular difcourfe; and fay, if it is our behaviour and addrefs upon all common occafions that prejudice people in our favour or to our difadvantage, and the more fubftantial parts, as our learning and induftry, cannot poffibly appear but to few; it is net juftifiable to spend so much time, in that which fo very few are judges of, and utterly neglect that which falls within the cenfure of fo many.

ing letters.

SIR,

OXFORD, JUNE 24, 1713

THIS day Mr. Oliver Purville, Gentleman, property man to the Theatre Royal in the room of Mr. William Peer, deceased, arrived here in widow Bartlett's waggon. He is an humble member of the little club, and a paffionate man, which makes him tell the dif aiters which he met with on his road hither, a little too incoherently to be rightly understood. By what I can gather from him, it feems that within three miles of this fide Wickham, the party was fet upon by highwaymen. Mr.Purville was fupercargo to the great hamper in which were the following goods. The chains of Jaffeir and Pierre; the crowns and fcepters of the pofterity of Banquo; the bull, bear, and horse, of Captain Otter; bones, fkulls, pickaxes, and a bottle of brandy, and five muskets; fourfcore pieces of ftock-gold, and thirty pieces of tin-filver, hid in a green purse within a skull. Thef the robFers, by being put up fafe, fuppofed to be true, and rid off with, not forgetting re- take Mr. Parville's curent coin.

HOR, SAT, 6. L. 2. v. 33r
CREECHO

They broke the armour of Jacomo, which was cafed up in the fame hamper; and one of them put on the faid Jacomo's mafk to escape. They alfo did several extravagancies with no other purpole but to do mifchief; they broke a mace for the Lord Mayor of London. They alfo deftroyed the world, the fun and moon, which lay loofe in the waggon. Mrs. Bartlett is frighted out of her wits, for Purville fays he has her fervant's receipt for the world, and expects the fhall make it good. Purville is refolved to take no lodgings in town, but makes behind the fcenes a bedchamber of the hamper: his bed is that in which Defdemona is to die, and he ufes the fheet in which Mr. Johnson is tied up in a comedy, for his own bed of nights. It it to be hoped the great ones will confider Mr. Purville's lois. of the robbers has fent, by a country fellow, the ftock gold, and had the impudence to write the following letter to Mr. Purville.

I

SIR,

One

F you had been an honeft man, you would not have put bad money upon men who ventured their lives for