with his friend, William Clark, an English M.P., on the bringingup of a boy of good birth and station in life, and after his return to England the letters were edited and published (1693) under the title of Some Thoughts on Education. He wrote exclusively on the education of a gentleman by the private-tutor method, and described the practices of English upper-class society rather than the practices of the schools.

The treatise is quite lengthy, and deals with such subjects as clothing, diet, habits, punishments, rewards, manners, good breeding, recreations, requisites of a gentleman, intellectual education, the mother tongue, Latin and Greek, recreation, and travel. The following extract is typical and illustrative of Locke's point of view.

As the Father's Example must teach the Child Respect for his Tutor, so the Tutor's Example must lead the Child into those Actions he would have him do. His Practice must by no means cross his Precepts, unless he intend to set him wrong. It will be to no Purpose for the Tutor to talk of the Restraint of the Passions whilst any of his own are let loose; and he will in vain endeavour to reform any Vice or Indecency in his Pupil, which he allows in himself. Ill Patterns are sure to be follow'd more than good Rules; . .

In all the whole Business of Education, there is nothing like to be less hearken'd to, or harder to be well observ'd, than what I am now going to say; and that is, that Children should, from their first beginning to talk, have some discreet, sober, nay, wise Person about them, whose Care it should be to fashion them aright, and keep them from all Ill, especially the infection of bad company. I think this province requires great Sobriety, Temperance, Tenderness, Diligence, and Discretion; Qualities hardly to be found united in Persons that are to be had for ordinary Salaries, nor easily to be found any where. . . .

The Consideration of Charge ought not to deter those who are able. The great Difficulty will be where to find a proper Person: For those of small Age, Parts, and Vertue, are unfit for this Employment, and those that have greater, will hardly be got to undertake such a Charge. You must therefore look out early, and enquire every where; for the World has People of all Sorts. . . .

... one fit to educate and form the Mind of a young Gentleman is

not every where to be found, and more than ordinary Care is to be taken in the Choice of him, or else you may fail of your End.

The Character of a sober Man and a Scholar is, as I have above observ'd, what every one expects in a Tutor. This generally is thought enough, and is all that Parents commonly look for: But when such an one has Empty'd out into his Pupil all the Latin and Logick he has brought from the University, will that Furniture make him a fine Gentleman? Or can it be expected, that he should be better bred, better skill'd in the World, better principled in the Grounds and Foundations of true Virtue and Generosity, than his young Tutor is?

To form a young Gentleman as he should be, 't is fit his Governor should himself be well-bred, understanding the Ways of Carriage and Measures of Civility in all the Variety of Persons, Times, and Places; and keep his Pupil, as much as his Age requires, constantly to the Observation of them. This is an Art not to be learnt nor taught by Books. Nothing can give it but good Company and Observation join'd together. The Taylor may make his Clothes modish, and the Dancing-master give Fashion to his Motions; yet neither of these, tho' they set off well, make a well-bred Gentleman: No, tho' he have Learning, to boot, which, if not well manag'd, makes him more impertinent and intolerable in Conversation. Breeding is that which sets a Gloss upon all his other good Qualities, and renders them useful to him, in procuring him the Esteem and Good-will of all that he comes near. Without good Breeding his other Accomplishments make him pass but for proud, conceited, vain, or foolish.

Courage in an ill-bred Man has the Air and escape not the Opinion of Brutality: Learning becomes Pedantry; Wit, Buffoonry Plainness, Rusticity; good Nature, Fawning. And there cannot be a good Quality in him, which Want of Breeding will not warp and disfigure to his Disadvantage.

Besides being well-bred, the Tutor should know the World well; the Ways, the Humours, the Follies, the Cheats, the Faults of the Age he is fallen into, and particularly of the Country he lives in. These he should be able to shew to his Pupil, as he finds him capable; teach him skill in Men, and their Manners; pull off the Mask which their several Callings and Pretences cover them with, and make his pupil discern what lies at the Bottom under such Appearances. . . . that when he comes to launch into the Deep himself, he may not be like one at Sea without a Line, Compass, or Sea-Chart; but may have some Notice before-hand of the Rocks and Shoals, the Currents and Quick-sands, and know a little how to steer, that he sink not before he get Experience. . . .

A great Part of the Learning now in Fashion in the Schools of Europe, and that goes ordinarily into the Round of Education, a Gentleman may in a good Measure be unfurnish'd with, without any great

Disparagement to himself or Prejudice to his Affairs. But Prudence and good breeding are in all the Stations and Occurrences of Life necessary; and most young Men suffer in want of them, and come rawer and more awkwa d into the World than they should, for this very Reason, because these Qualities, which are of all other the most necessary to be taught, and stand most in need of the Assistance and Help of a Teacher, are generally neglected and thought but a slight or no Part of a Tutor's Business. Latin and Learning make all the Noise; and the main Stress is laid upon his Proficiency in Things a great Part whereof belong not to a Gentleman's Calling; which is to have the Knowledge of a Man of Business, a Carriage suitable to his Rank, and be eminent and useful in his Country, according to his Station. . . .

The great Work of a Governor, is to fashion the Carriage, and form the Mind; to settle in his Pupil good Habits and the Principles of Virtue and Wisdom; to give him by little and little a View of Mankind, and to work him into a Love and Imitation of what is excellent and praise-worthy; and, in the Prosecution of it, to give him Vigour, Activity, and Industry. The Studies which he sets him upon, are but as it were the Exercises of his Faculties, and Employment of his Time, to keep him from Sauntering and Idleness, to teach him Application, and accustom him to take Pains, and to give him some little Taste of what his own Industry must perfect. For who expects, that under a Tutor a young Gentleman should be an accomplish'd Critick, Orator, or Logician? go to the Bottom of Metaphysicks, natural Philosophy, or Mathcmaticks? or be a Master in History or Chronology? though something of each of these is to be taught him: But it is only to open the Door, that he may look in, and as it were begin an acquaintance, but not to dwell there: And a Governor would be much blam'd that should keep his Pupil too long, and lead him too far in most of them. But of good Breeding, Knowledge of the World, Virtue, Industry, and a Love of Reputation, he cannot have too much: And if he have these, he will not long want what he needs or desires of the other.

We learn not to live, but to dispute; and our Education fits us rather for the University than the World. But 't is no wonder if those who make the Fashion suit it to what they have, and not to what their Pupils want. The Fashion being once establish'd, who can think it strange, that in this, as well as in all other Things, it should prevail? . . . Reason, if consulted with, would advise, that their Children's Time should be spent in acquiring what might be useful to them when they come to be Men, rather than to have their heads stuff'd with a deal of Trash, a great Part whereof they usually never do ('t is certain they never need to) think on again as long as they live; and so much of it as does stick by them they are only the worse for. This is so well known, that I appeal to Parents themselves, who have been at Cost to have

their young Heirs taught it, whether it be not ridiculous for their Sons to have any Tincture of that Sort of Learning, when they come abroad into the World? whether any Appearance of it would not lessen and disgrace them in Company? And that certainly must be an admirable Acquisition, and deserves well to make a Part in Education, which Men are asham'd of where they are most concern'd to shew their Parts and Breeding.

217. Locke's Plan for Working-Schools for Poor Children

(Fox Bourne, H. R., Life of John Locke, vol. II, p. 383. London, 1876) When the English philosopher, John Locke, was sixty-four years old (1696), his high sense of duty induced him to accept an appointment from the King, as Commissioner of Trade and Plantations. In connection with his work in this office he prepared a plan for bringing up the children of paupers. While the plan as proposed was never adopted, it is nevertheless so typical of English attitudes and practices with reference to the education of the children of the poor, and states so clearly the ideas of compulsory education and compulsory taxation, that it is included here as an important document relating to the education of the children of the poor and compulsory taxation therefor.

The children of labouring people are an ordinary burden to the parish, and are usually maintained in idleness, so that their labour is generally lost to the public till they are twelve or fourteen years old.

The most effectual remedy for this that we are able to conceive, and which we therefore humbly propose, is, that, in the fore-mentioned new law to be enacted, it be further provided that working schools be set up in every parish, to which the children of all such as demand relief of the parish, above three and under fourteen years of age, whilst they live at home with their parents, and are not otherwise employed for their livelihood by the allowance of the overseers of the poor, shall be obliged to come.

By this means the mother will be eased of a great part of her trouble in looking after and providing for them at home, and so be at the more liberty to work; the children will be kept in much better order, be better provided for, and from infancy be inured to work, which is of no small consequence to the making of them sober and industrious all their lives after; and the parish will be either eased of this burden or at least of the misuse in the present management of it. For, a great number of children giving a poor man a title to an allowance from the parish, this allowance is given once a week or once a month to the father in money which he not seldom spends on himself at the alehouse, whilst his children, for whose sake he had it, are left to suffer, or perish

under the want of necessaries, unless the charity of neighbours relieve them.

We humbly conceive that a man and his wife in health may be able by their ordinary labour to maintain themselves and two children. More than two children at one time under the age of three years will seldom happen in one family. If therefore all the children above three years old be taken off from their hands, those who have never so many, whilst they remain themselves in health, will not need any allowance for them.

We do not suppose that children of three years old will be able at that age to get their livelihoods at the working school, but we are sure that what is necessary for their relief will more effectually have that use if it be distributed to them in bread at that school than if it be given to their fathers in money. What they have at home from their parents is seldom more than bread and water, and that, many of them, very scantily too. If therefore care be taken that they have each of them their belly-full of bread daily at school, they will be in no danger of famishing, but, on the contrary, they will be healthier and stronger than those who are bred otherwise. Nor will this practice cost the overseers any trouble; for a baker may be agreed with to furnish and bring into the school-house every day the allowance of bread necessary for all the scholars that are there. And to this may be also added, without any trouble, in cold weather, if it be thought needful, a little warm water-gruel; for the same fire that warms the room may be made use of to boil a pot of it.

From this method the children will not only reap the fore-mentioned advantages with far less charge to the parish than what is now done for them, but they will be also thereby the more obliged to come to school and apply themselves to work, because otherwise they will have no victuals, and also the benefit thereby both to themselves and the parish will daily increase; for, the earnings of their labour at school every day increasing, it may reasonably be concluded that, computing all the earnings of a child during that whole time will cost the parish nothing; whereas there is no child now which from its birth is maintained by the parish but, before the age of fourteen, costs the parish £50 or £60.

Another advantage also of bringing children thus to a working school is that by this means they may be obliged to come constantly to church every Sunday, along with their schoolmasters or dames, whereby they may be brought into some sense of religion; whereas ordinarily now, in their idle and loose way of breeding up, they are as utter strangers both to religion and morality as they are to industry.

In order therefore to the more effectual carrying on of this work to the advantage of this kingdom, we further humbly propose that these schools be generally for spinning and knitting, or some other part of