SOC. Surely you would not have rewards and punishments employed to educate virtuous habits, which directly tend to destroy them. Tell me, pray, which would you have your sons to like best, virtue and knowledge, or sugar plumbs?
CT. You are merry, Socrates.
SOC. I am very serious. For how can that be considered as a reward for doing any thing, which is not better liked than the thing it is given in recompence for? “Do this and I will give you a sugar plumb.” What does it mean, but put yourself to pain for a moment, and you shall be abundantly recompensed by what I am to give you afterwards.—How Socrates went on we know not, the remainder of the conference not having been transmitted to us.
But this seems, my good friend, to be certain, that every affection in the human breast, which is implanted there by nature, is of great use; and that we may nurse any young affection into virtue or vice, as we please; whereas you cannot extirpate or crush any one of them nature hath inlaid into our frame, without rendering man a much more imperfect creature than he is furnished and equipped by nature to be. And in particular, as love of liberty and dominion is a very necessary one, so a sense of shame and a sense of honour are of indispensible utility.
Eutyphron, a noted preceptor, who had formed many great princes, patriots and heroes, was wont to say, “That he who knew how to reconcile this seeming contradiction, had, in his opinion, got the true arcanum of education, viz. ‘To form self-command or self-denial, and mastership of the passions, without weakening the vigour and activity of the mind, or destroying that love of power, dominion and authority, without which there can be no greatness of mind; nay no incentive to industry and improvement.’” And indeed, at first view, it seems to be a very difficult, if not impracticable task. But if we look more deeply into the matter, it will no longer appear a paradox. For what is the true principle of fortitude, generosity, patriotism, philanthropy? Whence proceed great actions, or what alone renders capable of them? Is it not such mastery over the appetites and inclinations as emboldens and enables one to resist the importunity of present pleasure or pain for the sake of what reason approves: such resolution and firmness as strengthens us to oppose terror or desire, till reason hath pronounced the action proposed, at least not unbecoming, and to look down with brave and generous disdain upon any thing that competes with honour and integrity? This temper ought therefore to be formed betimes: this habit, which is the only solid foundation of virtue, and happiness, virtue’s gift, ought to be wrought into and settled in the mind, as early as may be, from the very first dawnings of apprehension in children; and to be confirmed in them by all the care imaginable, of those who have the oversight of their education. So only are habits formed: so alone is any disposition rendered natural to the mind. But how can this be done otherwise than by accustoming children betimes not to have things unless they be proper for them, and only because they are so, and not in compliance with their wilfulness and peevish fretting or crying?
For this reason, the youth under his care were early taught the beauty, the dignity of self-dominion, and rule over their passions, and inured to the practice of it, and to placing their whole ambition in excelling others in wisdom and virtue, and in meriting thereby the esteem of all good men. They were taught to yield to reason, and to conquer by reason; and to take high delight in the ability of doing good; but to look upon compliance with vice as sinking and degrading the man. And thus their natural love of power took an excellent turn. They felt themselves grow in capacity, power and liberty, in proportion as they advanced in wisdom, and were able to resist pain or pleasure. And this inward force they could not feel without a sincere triumph of reason and conscience, that needs only to be felt to be preferred before all the gratifications of mere sense. By practice in self-denial and liberality, they became strangers to all fear, but the fear of incurring guilt, by acting contrary, or not sufficiently attending to the counsels of reason. They looked upon injustice, ingratitude, intemperance, ungenerousness, and the other vices of the mind, as the greatest evils man ought either to fear or be ashamed of. To dread any thing more than sin, was in their eyes errant cowardise. For thus they used to reason with themselves. “Is not my honour, my integrity, my principal good?—What remains to me worth enjoying in life, if that be impaired or sullied? Shall I then tremble at a wound in my body, and not be afraid of a wound in my better part?—If my reason be my dignity, then, surely, when I suffer my palate, my belly, or any of my senses to get the ascendant over my reason, and betray me into disobedience to it, or neglect of its authority—what do I but basely desert or betray my trust, and give up for a pitiful bribe all that ought to be dearest and most valuable in my estimation!” Indeed virtue must be an empty sound, or this is the chief lesson education ought to inculcate: “That no external evil is to be so much feared as the smallest immoral indulgence.”16 And never was there a truly great man, who had not his mind early seasoned and deeply tinctured with this noble sentiment. This produced an Epaminondas and a Pelopidas, a Scipio, a Cato, &c.—No other lesson could have formed such truly generous heroic minds, who thought of duty, and of that alone, in all their undertakings. But why do I say lesson? It was not by bare lectures, but by discipline and practice this God-like temper was produced. The youth in the ancient schools, which formed legislators, politicians, heroes, patriots, men equally fit to fight against tyranny, and to oppose luxury and corruption, which have done more mischief in free states than ever despotic power was able to do to mankind, without first introducing them.—Such noble souls were not only taught to distinguish right from wrong, but steadily inured to abstain from every appearance of evil, and to place their supreme delight in being as useful as their power could reach. Their masters, whose examples were ever in their eyes, were patterns to them of every virtue, of temperance, of fortitude, and of vigilant active benevolence. And no day passed in which some new example of some one or other eminent moral excellency was not set before them from history, to add new spurs to their noble ambition.—But this was not all. Hardly did any day go over their heads, in which some opportunity was not found out to try and exercise their virtue, that one, at least, which is the foundation, and may justly be called the mother of all the virtues, self-command, and the habit of duly consulting reason what ought or ought not to be done. For it is by no means a difficult matter for a wise master, who has the care of a small number of young pupils, to devise several such trials, or to make occasions for them.
This was the method generally used in these schools; and what was the effect of it? The seeds of virtue being thus early sown in the mind, and the growth and progress of them being duly watched over, and pursued with proper culture, all the virtues soon sprung up in them to great vigour, and the soul was betimes formed into a temper able to withstand all the snares and allures of the world. “Train up a child, said he, in the ways you would have him to persist in, and he will never desert them. For custom, saith the proverb in every one’s mouth, is a second nature.” The vices of others, to a well-form’d mind, will only afford materials for the exercise of its virtues, its prudence, its compassion, its fortitude and generosity. And what signify a sprightly imagination, eloquence, erudition, if the soul hath not a truly liberal and generous cast? What is courage without regard to justice and the rights of mankind, but brutality? Or what are oratory, wit, and learning, without love to equity, liberty and truth, that no temptations can shake, intimidate, or cool, but very dangerous weapons in very bad hands? A quick sense and warm love of right, are qualities without which all other accomplishments are really noxious. Let therefore education have virtue chiefly and continually in its view.
Cebes, master of a school at Athens, being asked what he taught, said, I have but one lesson to teach. For tho’ it may seem to consist of many parts, yet it is but one, even as a tree with all its arms, leaves, and fruits, is one. And it is justly called in one word philosophy, or the medicine of the mind. “It shews what is honest17 and dishonest; it distinguishes just from unjust, and teaches us what we ought to avoid with all care, and what is truly worthy of our desire and pursuit: It informs us how we ought to love and honour God the supreme Being, the Author of all things; what reverence is due to parents; what respect we owe to the wise and good, to experienced sages; what regard to the laws and magistrates, and how we ought to behave ourselves towards our friends, and how towards strangers; our duty to our wives, to our children and our servants:
