Observations upon Liberal Education. George Turnbull
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and a sense of honour and shame, which, if rightly used, are very proper handles for turning children towards the sedulous improvement of their minds in wisdom and virtue?
STR. Of this I am very sensible. But perhaps you may have thought of some other motives besides those named.
DAM. No, Strephon, I know no other but those you have mentioned, duly extended.
STR. What do you mean by the ideas of the excellence of virtue and of good reputation duly extended?
DAM. Extend your thoughts, Strephon, from good men to the Author of all good, the Father and Governor of the universe, and then you will be at no loss to comprehend my meaning. For is not his approbation and love a noble, an invincible incentive34 to steady perseverance in goodness? And if you dwell a little upon this great and comfortable thought, it will quickly lead you to another, which renders the cause of virtue compleatly triumphant, viz. That under his government, virtue must be a perpetual progress from perfection to perfection; and therefore virtue, when arrived by proper culture in this its first state of education and trial, to great maturity, will not be wilfully destroyed, but on the contrary, as it is in its own nature an immortal good, the seed of eternal and never-fading bliss, so it will be taken due care of and properly placed.
STR. You have indeed by a few words raised my mind to a very chearful sublime idea; a prospect, that while it is before the mind, makes all the temptations vice can offer dwindle into mere nothings. And this sure is a delightful view of nature, that ought to be early disclosed to young minds. O, Damocles, my child shall early know who taught me to instil into his mind those great and comfortable ideas, and to work into him those glorious habits you have taught me in this short conversation: He shall no sooner love me, than he shall love you, the source of all his happiness: And by pursuing the methods with him you have delineated to me, I foresee he must very early be much wiser and better than I was, till my care about him happily sent me to you.
Thus were virtue and science taught. I might now tell you the health of young scholars was taken care of by discipline, then imagined equally necessary for the body and the mind. Indeed so equally are these two yoked by nature, that they do not require two different regimens, but one and the same course is best for both. As the mind is in a bad state, when its wanton, petulant and luxurious imaginations irritate the body, and make it feel wants, which, when left to itself, it would not feel, or as often as it so feels them, might be easily supplied: So the body is then in its soundest and pleasantest temperature, when it most easily and readily obeys the commands of a well-regulated mind. We are apt to throw the blame of several irregularities and disorders upon our bodily constitution, and to call many violent appetites, cravings of our material part, which are really vices of the mind, and do not take their rise from any wants or uneasinesses in our bodies, but from the dissolution, impurity, and tumultuousness of ill-disciplin’d affections. In truth many more ills are brought upon the body by the mind, than by the body upon the mind, viz. by not following the prescripts of reason in bodily indulgences, or not taking the proper care of our body, which it is the duty of our mind, the governing part, to do. So that Democritus had good reason to say, “If the body should bring an action against the soul for damages, the latter would certainly be cast.” Plato recommends teaching youth early to know, that body and mind are like two horses in a yoke, that should draw pretty equally; and to consider, that as it is the chief good we can have from the body, if it be no obstacle to us in the study and practice of virtue; so while our body is preserved in that state, our soul performs its duty to it, and best secures it against the most painful feelings to which it is obnoxious. We are to remember how little the mind can be useful to itself or others, when we have brought sickness or disease upon the body by neglect of it, or which oftner happens by fondling and cockering it too much. Let us not therefore oppress or fatigue it, or exact greater abstinence or harder labour from it than it can bear, but keep in mind the fable of the camel and the ox.35 “They belonged to the same master, and had been constantly employed for many years to work together. But the camel, on a certain occasion being wilful or peevish and restive, refused to draw equally with the ox. Upon which the ox sagely told him, if he did not, he would soon repent it; for he should quickly have the whole drudgery to perform alone, and without his help: And so it soon happened. For the ox died of his over-fatigue, and the master ever after made the camel do the work of both.”
This story did Speusippus tell his scholars, when they happened to be over sedulous in their studies to the neglect of their bodies. But he had much oftner occasion to have recourse to some other apologue like this. “A certain sprightly horse continued in perfectly good plight, while he was exercised, rid out, or put to moderate work. But coming, unhappily for him, to be the favourite of his master, he was kept at home, spared, as it is called, and put to no drudgery but that of eating and kicking about in the stable, and thus he soon became very miserable, quite lifeless and dispirited, and loathing his food enjoyed no manner of satisfaction: tho’ perhaps often envied by his companions in the neighbouring stalls, when they came in fatigued; yet he well knew them by sad experience to be much happier than he, and earnestly longed to be no more the darling but rather the drudge. The fond master perceiving a fatal change, but not discerning the cause, tho’ in every other stable but his own he was very apt to give the lesson he never thought of applying at home, had recourse to physic, till the poor animal, formerly fit to attend and obey his master in every exercise, to the admiration of all who saw him, turned first vitious, and at last quite languid and stupid. And the master, in danger of losing his minion, curses the air, the season, the food, the doctor, and in fine, blames every thing but himself, the sole cause of the dismal catastrophe, which cuts him to the heart, and yet perhaps will not hinder him from killing or spoiling the next unlucky favourite with the same cruel fondness.”
But of health perhaps we may write on some other occasion, and there gather together the most remarkable observations and rules among the ancients about preserving it sound. I shall now therefore dwell no longer on this head, than just to take notice, that few diseases steal upon us, to use Hesiod’s phrase, unawares and dumb, Jupiter having denied the use of speech to very few of them. Most illnesses have their harbingers, which going before them, loudly announce their approach. And youth ought to be taught and inured to attend to the heaviness and languor, the weariness, oppression and nauseating, and other symptoms which predict the coming danger, if proper precautions be not taken to obviate it: And to observe what are the causes of them in themselves and others. This will quickly teach them the necessity of sobriety, temperance and exercise; for from some defect or excess in diet or labour, do obstructions or unwholesome humours, and most other bodily disorders of the worst kinds proceed. “ ’Tis a greater shame, said an old physician, for one grown up to man, not to know his constitution, so far, at least, as to be able to discern what is contrary to his health, but to be obliged to consult a doctor what he may safely eat and drink, for instance, than not to know what is bitter, sour, or sweet, weak or strong, without asking his cook. The latter only indicates want of palate, but the other want of observation and reflection.” The necessity of exercise to health is obvious. The utility of health consists in its enabling us to be active and useful. And by activity is health preserved. As well may one think of preserving his voice by not speaking, or his eyes by not making use of them, as of maintaining the vigour of his limbs by indolence and abstinence from action. The exercise of the voice, in particular, in reading aloud or declaiming, hath been found by experience to be a very useful one to the breast and lungs of youth, as well as for preparing them to speak in public.
The other great rule about health is sobriety. As the mind is strengthened, and gains the mastery over its appetites, by refusing to listen too readily to bodily cravings, and duly chastising the fancies; so the more the body is used to abstemiousness and hardship, if there be no affectation of excessive austerity, the more the body is braced and invigorated. What Simonides said of Silence, we may well apply to temperance and abstinence. “He had often, said he, repented speaking, but very seldom being silent.” We may often have reason to repent of indulgence, but very seldom of moderation, or even of abstemiousness. Let us often reflect upon what Lysimachus said, when he and his army were reduced by thirst to surrender themselves to the Getae, after he had greedily drank a glass of cool fresh water, “Good Gods, said he, for how transient a pleasure have I lost the greatest of blessings, liberty!” This we have good reason to say, when we have brought any disorder or illness upon ourselves