Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/10

ventures of This Great Man; but upon the Subject of his Apologies and Morals; And not of His alone, but of several other Eminent Men that have Written after his Copy; and abundantly Contributed in those Labours, to the Delight, Benefit, and Instruction of Those that were to come after them.

There are, ’tis True, a Certain Set of Morose and Untractable Spirits in the World, that look upon Precepts in Emblem, as they do upon Gays and Pictures, that are only fit for Women and Children, and make no more reckoning of them, then of the Fooleries of so many Old Wives Tales. These are a sort of People that are Resolv’d to be pleas’d with nothing that is not Unsociably Soure, Ill Natur’d, and Troublesome; Men that make it the Mark as well as the Prerogitave of a Philosopher, to be Magisterial, and Churlish; As if a man could not be Wise and Honest, without being Inhumane; or, I might have said, without putting and Affront upon Christian Charity, Civil Society, Decency and Good Manners: But they are not aware All this while, that the Foundations of Knowledge and Vertue are laid in our Childhood; when Nothing goes Kindly down with us, that is not Season’d and Adapted to the Palate and Capacity of those Tender Years. ’Tis in the very Nature of us, first, to be Inquisitive, and Hankering after New and New Sights and Stories: and 2dly, No less sollicitous to Learn and Understand the Truth and Meaning of what we See and Hear: So that betwixt the Indulging and Cultivating of This Disposition, or Inclination, on the One hand, and the Applying of a Profitable Moral to the Figure, or the Fable, on the Other, here’s the Sum of All that can be done upon the Point of a Timely Discipline and Institution, toward the Forming of an Honourable, and a Vertuous Life. Most Certain it is, that without This Early Care and Attention, upon the Main, we are as good as Lost in our very Cradles; for the Principles that we Imbibe in our Youth, we carry commonly to our Graves; and it is the Education, in short, that makes the Man. To speak All, in a Few Words, Children are but Blank Paper, ready Indifferently to any Impression, Good or Bad for they take All upon Credit; and it is much in the Power of the first Comer, to Write Saint, or Devil, upon’t, which of the Two He pleases. Wherefore let the Method of Communication be never so Natural and Agreeable, the Better, the Worse still, if the Matter be not Suited to the Prudence, the Piety, and the Tenderness that is Requisite in the Exercise of such a Function. Now This is a Nicety that Depends, in a great Measure, upon the Care, Providence, Sobriety, Conduct and Good Example of Parents, Guardians, Tutors, & c. Nay it Descends to the very Choice of such Nurses, Servants, and Familiar Companions, as will apply themselves Diligently to the Discharge of this Office.

As it is beyond All Dispute, I suppose, that the Delight and Genius of Children, lies much toward the Hearing, Learning, and telling of Little